Nishat

Nishat is the protagonist of the novel, and the majority of the novel is told from her first person perspective. Nishat lives with her two parents, Ammu and Abbu, and her younger sister Priti. Her grandmother, Nanu, still lives in Bangladesh where Nishat was born. Nishat and her family immigrated to Dublin, Ireland when Nishat was a child.

Nishat has an intersectional identity, as she lives as an outsider on several fronts - she is an immigrant, she is a young woman of color, and she is a lesbian. At the start of the novel she makes the decision to come out to her parents, setting off tension between her family as her parents struggle with what to do with the new information. As Nishat increasingly feels unwelcome in her home, she further roots herself in her culture and cultural identity by creating her henna business for her...