Monica Ali (born October 20, 1967) is the author of Brick Lane, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh to Bangladeshi and English parents, moving to England at the age of three. She grew up in Bolton, Northern England near Manchester and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford. Ali was voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript of Brick Lane. The novel caused controversy within the Bangladeshi Sylheti community residing in the UK owing to its negative portrayal of Sylhetis. She lives in south London with her husband, Simon, a management consultant, and their two children, Felix and Shumi. She opposes the British government's attempt to introduce the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, something she writes about in her contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays published by Penguin in November 2005.