A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

I love this quote from a Washington Post review of this book because it captures the essence of why I loved reading this:  

...this is a novel about how families create their own history and mythology — and how those assumptions about the past haunt their relations with each other.

There is so much going on in this family, and between the different family members. I just loved the characters....and in the end, the father, who is not so sympathetic earlier in the book, reveals himself to be a much different person than he tries to project to the world.

More from this review:

Part of what makes Mirza’s novel captivating is her ability to shift among perspectives so gracefully. We feel the panic of Amar’s parents as they struggle to find some effective balance between discipline and indulgence. And we feel the torment of Amar’s conviction that he doesn’t belong, that he’s not right, that he doesn’t deserve the blessing of salvation and, finally, that he’s not a Muslim. Yet the real agony, which Mirza plumbs with such heartbreaking sympathy, is Amar’s incurable longing for the balm of belief and the embrace of his devout parents.
In prose of quiet beauty and measured restraint, Mirza traces those twined strands of yearning and sorrow that faith involves. She writes with a mercy that encompasses all things. If the demands of Islam make Rafiq behave cruelly toward his only son, those same demands eventually inspire a confession of affection that is among the most poignant things I have ever read. Each time I stole away into this novel, it felt like a privilege to dwell among these people, to fall back under the gentle light of Mirza’s words. 

Highly recommended!