The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

This book is a story about a young woman named Amina who lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She wants to get married and live in America, so she starts searching dating websites and finally finds a man named George who lives in Rochester, New York. They email back and forth, until George decides to come to Bangladesh to meet his potential bride. Amina is beautiful and smart, and doesn't play games like American women, so George falls in love. This book is really about two extremely different cultures trying to come together. Amina's parents, and Amina for that matter, assume they will be moving to America once Amina gets all of her documentation in order, so they can live with their daughter and new husband and take care of the cooking and cleaning and help raise the children. George, on the other hand, doesn't really understand this idea and trys to stall as long as possible. It is interesting to see how different these two cultures are, and fun to watch Amina learn about things in America. She makes new friends, gets different jobs and even goes to school. She also figures out a secret that George has been hiding, but she has one of her own, so they are even. This is a very well-written book about two people who are totally different in every way possible. The author does an excellent job of describing life in Bangladesh, introducing us to new foods and all the difficulties of living in this place. It is a good read.