When the 450-year-old Babri mosque in Ayodhya, India, was destroyed by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992, it let loose a worldwide wave of Muslim reprisals against all Hindus. This novel describes the nightmarish fate of one Bangladeshi Hindu family. Not since Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses has a book provoked such mob violence, public outcries, and calls for the author's death. The title bespeaks the author's shame at human degradation, her shame both for a government which could not protect the Hindu minority, and for her fellow citizens. It is the indictment of a nation--indeed, an entire religion. Dr. Nasrin calls Shame the "testament" of a writer determined, despite the danger she faces, to speak out in favor of Islamic reform, religious tolerance, and freedom of expression, and against Muslim extremism and other forms of fanaticism.