The World Is My Country: A Memoir of Exile and Belonging

Summary

A sweeping, expansive memoir about one girl’s struggle for personhood, and the choices she is forced to make when adults and institutions let her down.

Born and raised in London, sixteen-year-old Shazna Nessa loved reading the Brontës and visiting art galleries. Her greatest dream was to go to university. But at home, with her Bangladeshi family, Shazna was expected to be obedient and submit to an arranged marriage as a teenager.

Torn between two cultures, Shazna began to dream of a different future. An illicit relationship with a much older musician gave her a glimpse of a wider, more exciting world, one in which she could continue her education and follow her ambitions. But when her relatives discovered the threat to their honor, they abducted her from London to Bangladesh, with the intention to force her into marriage.

Through her darkest moments, Shazna stayed hopeful and determined to find a way out. When a daring escape plan emerged, she faced the hardest decision of her life: choosing between loyalty to the family she loved, or the freedom she’d always craved.

Told with searing honesty and cinematic sweep, The World Is My Country traces Shazna’s journey from the sweltering streets of Dhaka to the wide boulevards of Paris and the hustle of New York. A rich tapestry of exile and belonging, family and survival, this memoir explores what happens when love entangles with power. Written with vulnerability and lyricism, Shazna’s story reveals how far one woman will go to forge her own future and set herself free.