Monica Ali is a British writer of Bangladeshi origin. Her début novel Brick Lane (2003) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003 and was adapted to a film of the same name in 2007. Ali who grew up in England was included among Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript. She has also written a story collection Alentejo Blue (2007), and her latest novel In The Kitchen was released in 2009.