"Love, desire, fractured families and long-buried secrets - this exceptional novel explores modern Britain with wit, warmth and truly wonderful storytelling."
From the acclaimed author of Brick Lane and In the Kitchen, Monica Ali’s Love Marriage tells an un-put-down-able tale of two couples, two cultures and two families in present-day London. It’s an incisive, huge-hearted window into flawed individuals haunted by their pasts, love, desire, class and race delivered with the wit and honesty of a true storyteller.
Yasmin and her fiancée Joe are both junior doctors, on the verge of starting a new life together, though they come from very different worlds. White and wealthy Joe has grown up in his overbearing mother’s Primrose Hill pile, while Yasmin is of Indian heritage, a south Londoner who’s fulfilling her father’s dream by following his footsteps into medicine. As the wedding edges closer, their families spend more time with each other, and Yasmin’s mother strikes up an unexpected bond with Joe’s mother and one of her feminist friends. At the same time, Joe is presented with harrowing truths about his upbringing and addiction during therapy, while Yasmin starts to question what she really wants, who she really is, and what marrying for love (the “Love marriage” of the title) really means.
Though often suffused in warm humour, the novel is also starkly, movingly honest. Its pages shiver with damaged individuals; flawed and flailing lost souls at all stages of life. As the characters struggle with the lies they‘ve told themselves, and the secrets they’ve kept from others, readers are presented with remarkable moments of authentic pain and joy, not least when truths are finally faced.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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Closing date: 04/07/2026
TWO CULTURES. TWO FAMILIES. TWO PEOPLE.
The new novel from the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of BRICK LANE
Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine, and a charming, handsome fiancee, fellow doctor Joe Sangster.
But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin's parents get to know Joe's firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals.
As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she's also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a 'love marriage' actually means. Love Marriage is a story about who we are and how we love in today's Britain - with all the complications and contradictions of life, desire, marriage and family. What starts as a captivating social comedy develops into a heart-breaking and gripping story of two cultures, two families and two people trying to understand one another.
Love Marriage features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Family Drama, General Fiction, Sharing Diverse Voices, Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Fiction: narrative themes
Love Marriage is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook (Epub)
Love Marriage was written by Monica Ali and published by Virago Press Ltd an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group
