Love Marriage: A Novel

Set in London, a fresh and wickedly incisive novel about the daughter of Indian immigrants navigating love, family, and culture—by the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestselling Brick Lane, shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose domineering mother, Helen, is a famous feminist. Though both Yasmin’s parents and Joe’s mother approve of the marriage, the cultural gulf between Yasmin and Joe is vast. The novel opens as Yasmin and her family pile into their car, packed with Indian food prepared by Yasmin’s mother, to go to dinner to meet Joe’s mother in her elegant townhouse in one of London’s poshest neighborhoods. Contrary to all of Yasmin’s fears, her unsophisticated mother is embraced and celebrated by Helen and her friends. But before long, complications ensue when Yasmin discovers Joe’s promiscuous nature, her brother is banished from the house by her father, and Yasmin’s mother moves to Helen’s house in protest. ​ Bold, intimate, and entertaining, Love Marriage is a multi-layered story that explores how the secrets people keep hidden affect their most intimate relationships—and how sometimes, it takes extreme upheaval, to find ourselves and our lives, truly transformed.