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The New York City Gracie Book Club's inauguarl pick, this vibrant debut novel set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh follows three young women and a family struggling to make peace with secrets and their past.

For as long as she can remember, Ella has longed to feel at home. Orphaned as a child after her parents' murder and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, she has always felt more at ease in nature than with people. She traveled from Bangladesh to Brooklyn to live with the Saleems: her uncle Anwar, aunt Hashi, and their beautiful daughter, Charu, her complete opposite. One summer, when Ella returns home from college, she discovers Charu's friend Maya-an Islamic cleric's runaway daughter-asleep in her bedroom.

As the girls have a summer of clandestine adventure and sexual awakenings, Anwar, the owner of a popular botanical apothecary, has his own secrets, threatening his thirty-year marriage. But when tragedy strikes, the Saleems find themselves blamed. To keep his family from unraveling, Anwar takes them on a fated trip to Bangladesh to reckon with the past, their extended family, and each other.

Tanwi Nandini Islam, a writer, multimedia artist, and founder of Hi Wildflower Botanica, is a graduate of Vassar College and Brooklyn College's MFA program. Her debut novel Bright Lines made the short list of finalists for the Center of Fiction's First Novel Prize and is the inaugural pick of New York City's Gracie Book Club.

Soneela Nankani, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a classically trained actress, voice-over artist, and singer who has had roles in film and on television. She has worked with the award-winning Sojourn Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre.