The Newlyweds

thugs saw that you hadn t fixed it, that was an invitation.

The flag was still raised, and when she double-­checked, sticking her hand all the way into its black depths, there was only the stack of bills George had left on his way to work. The thugs did not actually steal the mail, and so her green card, which was supposed to arrive this month, would have been safe even if she could have forgotten to check. Thugs had a different meaning in America, and that was why she d been confused. George had been talking about kids, troublemakers from East Rochester High, while Amina had been thinking of dacoits: bandits who haunted the highways and made it unsafe to take the bus. She had lived in Rochester six months now ­long enough to know that there were no bandits on Pittsford roads at night.

American English was different from the language she d learned at Maple Leaf International in Dhaka, but she was lucky because George corrected her and kept her from making embarrassing mistakes. Americans always went to the bathroom, never the loo. They did not live in flats or stow anything in the boot of the car, and under no circumstances did they ever pop outside to smoke a fag.

Maple Leaf was where she first learned to use the computer, and the computer was how she met George, a thirty-­four-­year-old SWM who was looking for a wife. George had explained to her that he had always wanted to get married. He had dated women in Rochester, but often found them silly, and had such a strong aversion to perfume that he couldn t sit across the table from a woman who was wearing it. George s cousin Kim had called him picky, and had suggested that he might have better luck on the Internet, where he could clarify his requireme

she deftly shows how strange the rituals of suburban America seem to an observant outsider. The Wall Street Journal

Freudenberger s central couple are more than well-crafted characters; they shimmer with believability and self-contradicting nuance. . . . Fluid and utterly confident. Time Out New York

The Newlyweds is so much more than a lost-in-translation romp: There are soulful depths to the sociology. . . . [A] luscious and intelligent novel that will stick with you. . . . Freudenberger keeps the wonderfulness coming. Maureen Corrigan, NPR

Freudenberger brings impressive attributes to bear in [The Newlyweds]: a powerful sense of empathy, of being able to imagine what it is to be someone else, to feel what someone else feels; an effective writing style that avoids drawing attention to itself; and an international sensibility, which allows her to write about places outside America not as peripheral mere playgrounds for American characters but as central to themselves. The New York Times Book Review

Once in a while, you come across a novel with characters so rich and nuanced, and situations so pitch-perfect, that you forget you're reading fiction. The Newlyweds is that sort of novel. I was floored by it captivated from beginning to end. And now that I'm done, I can t stop thinking about it. J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Maine

That Amina and George manage to muddle though the first years of marriage is a testament to the power of love and respect; that we care about them all the way through says as much about Freudenberger s keen observations and generous heart. O, The Oprah Magazine

The Newlyweds crosses continents, cultures and generations. . . . It s funny, gracefully written and full of loneliness and yearning. It s also a candid, recognizable story about love the real-life kind, which is often hard and sustained by hope, kindness, and pure effort. USA Today

Freudenberger draws women's complex lives as brilliantly as Austen or Wharton or Woolf, and, with The Newlyweds, has given a performance of beauty and grace. Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Story of a Marriage

Rich, wise, bighearted. . . . Freudenberger works with care and respect, giving a full voice to every Deshi aunt, American cousin, and passing employee at the Starbucks where Amina finds a job. Freudenberger moves gracefully between South Asian fantasies of American life and the realities of bone-cold, snow-prone upstate New York and turns the coming together of newlyweds Amina and George into a readers banquet. Entertainment Weekly, Grade: A

A true triumph. The New York Observer

Captivating. . . . This engaging story, with its page after page of effortless prose, ultimately offers up a deeper narrative. The Boston Globe

Wise, timely, ripe with humor and complexity, The Newlyweds is one of the most believable love stories of our young century. Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

Amina s determination, intelligence, and resilience make her a heroine for any culture and any time. Marie Claire
 
Exceptional . . . Here is an honest depiction of life as most people actually live it: Americans and Asians, Christians and Muslims, liberals and conservatives. Freudenberger writes with a cultural fluency that is remarkable and in a prose that is clean, intelligent, and very witty. David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World