Monica Ali’s book Brick Lane recounts the experiences of Nazneen, a young woman in Bangladesh who, after an arranged marriage, travels to live with her husband in Tower Hamlets. From being a passive, shut-in migrant Nanzeen becomes an autonomous working woman. The Bengali migration to London goes back 400 years to lascar seamen hired by the East India Company and continued into the 20th century. The clothing sweatshops Bengalis worked in began to die out in London, though women like Nazneen continued to do piecework-sewing in their homes. Meanwhile migrants founded and worked in restaurants serving modified Bengali dishes. Come see back-streets and estates of a highly diverse area socially and architecturally, while listening to the words of Nazneen, her family and friends as they adapt to a new life. It's a London most Londoners don't know.