03/07/2022
Booker-nominated Ali (Brick Lane) returns with the complex yet breezy account of a 26-year-old London medical student who questions whether she really wants to be a doctor or if she’s merely carrying out her father’s wishes. Yasmin Ghorami’s family is Indian and Muslim, and she is engaged to white upper-class colleague Joe Sangster, whose mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist activist. As wedding planning commences with Harriet and Yasmin’s mother, Anisah, at the helm, tensions rise between the couple, but it turns out religious and cultural differences are the least of the roadblocks. The delicate web of familial relationships and drama is held up by a vibrant supporting cast: Yasmin’s underachieving brother and his girlfriend’s unplanned pregnancy; Anisah’s midlife awakening to her own power, and Yasmin’s father’s increasing alcohol use and isolation as he clings to his conservative religious beliefs. Everything leads toward the reveal of a dark secret held by the Ghoramis that threatens to undermine the engagement. The characters’ brisk discussions on politics, culture, and race skate over ideological divides, the substance of which emerges in dramatic irony and creates a textured portrayal of an immigrant family. This is sure to please Ali’s fans and win some new ones. (May)
Praise for Love Marriage
“Quick footed and absorbing... The playful clash of cultures evolves into a subtle exploration of the ways in which both immigrant and nonimmigrant families have shaped their children, transmitting unexplored trauma across generations.” —The New Yorker
“Cultural clashes, political satire, Oedipal conflicts, elegant prose—they’re all here in this romp of a book.”
—Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily
“Ali successfully skewers everyone—white feminists, children of immigrants, overconfident male doctors...funny and satisfying.”
—Jenny Singer, Glamour
“An absorbing and meaty exploration of love, family and culture...”
—Carole V. Bell, NPR
“Such lively characters, they practically waltz off the page to hand readers save-the-date cards... I came to care deeply about this flawed pair, whose destiny Ali unfurls with obvious glee and a touch of poetry.”
—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review
09/01/2022
Dr. Yasmin Ghorami has perfectly reasonable worries as a bride-to-be. Will her devoutly Muslim mother embarrass her in front of fiancé Joe's boundary-pushing feminist mother? At least her engagement to a doctor meets her father's inflexible approval, but do her worries reflect the realities of people she may not know as well as she thinks? Ayesha Dharkar's crisp, musical narration develops organically with Yasmin as she moves from pre-wedding jitters toward devastating revelations of both self and family. A story rife with serious themes is leavened by Ali's (Brick Lane) well-rounded characters and the conviction that with care and communication everyone is capable of growth. Dharkar excels across a spectrum of class, culture, and generational divides, completely immersing listeners in the inner lives and outward relationships of the characters. Equally engrossing is the way that Ali fits interpersonal friction into her authentic portrayal of first- and second-generation immigrant experiences in modern Britain. Critique of performative white liberalism and of Islamophobia in both India and the UK enhance this satisfying listen. VERDICT Narrator and text are perfectly matched in this thought-provoking literary romance.—Lauren Kage
12/01/2021
This latest from Bangladeshi-born, UK-raised Ali, a Granta Best of Young British Novelists, features 26-year-old medical student Yasmin Ghorami, who's engaged to posh Joe Sangster. To Yasmin's relief, Joe's elegant mother quickly embraces her own not-as-polished mom, but family complications—and Joe's less-than-devoted ways—quickly threaten the romance. With a 125,000-copy first printing.
Ayesha Dharker, a Bombay-born British actor, performs this darkly comic audiobook smartly and sensitively. She gives every character their due. Her intonations, whether for Brits or Indian immigrants, are subtle and unique. Her portrayal of the conflicted heroine, Dr. Yasmin Ghorami, is apt, capturing all her angst. Perhaps her most eloquent renditions are of Yasmin’s Bengali immigrant parents, whose story provides the novel’s title. The plot traces the family’s intersections with Yasmin’s coming marriage to another young doctor, Joe Sangster, whose shrouded backstory initiates the action. His mother, Helen, an activist and provocateur, represents the English progressive intelligentsia and is, by turns, funny and sad. Secrets are revealed, and lives are altered in this finely tuned fiction. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Ayesha Dharker, a Bombay-born British actor, performs this darkly comic audiobook smartly and sensitively. She gives every character their due. Her intonations, whether for Brits or Indian immigrants, are subtle and unique. Her portrayal of the conflicted heroine, Dr. Yasmin Ghorami, is apt, capturing all her angst. Perhaps her most eloquent renditions are of Yasmin’s Bengali immigrant parents, whose story provides the novel’s title. The plot traces the family’s intersections with Yasmin’s coming marriage to another young doctor, Joe Sangster, whose shrouded backstory initiates the action. His mother, Helen, an activist and provocateur, represents the English progressive intelligentsia and is, by turns, funny and sad. Secrets are revealed, and lives are altered in this finely tuned fiction. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2022-03-02
Two London families—one Bengali, one White—collide spectacularly when their two eldest children decide to marry.
Yasmin Ghorami is a people-pleaser. At 26, doing what others expect is so ingrained in her that when her younger brother, Arif, asks her what she hoped to do before she became a doctor like their father, she can’t even remember if she ever had separate dreams of her own. She follows the rules of her family and her faith. She still lives with her parents and Arif in London, but not for long: She’s about to be married to Joe Sangster, a fellow doctor. Her parents, both Muslims with differing degrees of religiosity, thwarted tradition and married for love, and Yasmin is convinced that marrying Joe is her own romantic destiny. As the wedding plans coalesce, Yasmin has to deal with her future mother-in-law, Harriet, a Gloria Steinem–esque figure who is one of the leading feminist writers and thinkers in England. Harriet’s urbane, liberal fetishizing of Yasmin’s family—especially her homemaker mother—is a destabilizing influence, as is Harriet’s possessive relationship with Joe. Then there’s Arif’s aimlessness and his increasing awareness of the racism, both blatant and microaggressive, in his and Yasmin’s daily lives. Yasmin looks to Joe for stability, but he’s got secrets of his own. Before long, Yasmin is forced to reexamine the foundations of her whole life before the cracks threaten to bring everything she knows crumbling down. Ali’s immersive novel, skipping deftly between several points of view, might be termed a comedy of manners of Britain’s urban middle class, but the comedy here has teeth: Though the book treats its characters with affection, the racial dynamics are conveyed with real, heart-rending bite.
A keen look at London life, relationships (especially interracial ones)—and a return to Ali’s most celebrated territory.
