Summary

The narrator in “Salaam Brick Lane” by Tarquin Hall begins by explaining the way in which his travels around the world brought him back to London when he was about 30. In an attempt to reconnect with his past, the narrator wants to move to England for good, yet he finds it quite difficult. On the one hand, his friends and relatives have become estranged from him because of his travels. On the other hand, his financial situation is not ideal, and the narrator needs to live with a friend until he finds a place of his own.

In London, the real estate market is too expensive for the narrator to consider buying or even renting an apartment in the places where the narrator used to spend time as a child. Because he needs to find a place he can afford, the narrator decides to look at London’s East End, an area which he always saw as dangerous....