Love Marriage, by Monica Ali

Apart from being junior doctors in the National Health Service Joe and Yasmin appear to have little in common. But they are engaged and it’s time for their families to come together. Outspoken, wealthy, dominating, body positive, Joe’s mother Harriet always seems to get what she wants. Yasmin is embarrassed about her uptight GP father and traditional religious mother. She can’t wait for she and Joe to get their own place and escape their parents. But Joe has a secret that could bring them undone. Yasmin’s brother Arif also has a secret that could shatter their family. As their worlds unravel Yasmin learns there are shades of grey in everyone, including herself. She will have to get to the bottom of the love marriage between her wildly mismatched parents to work out if she can achieve a love marriage of her own. Ali has a clever way of making the reader simultaneously sympathise with and despise her characters. Short, sharp chapters switch between their various points of view, exposing their strengths and weaknesses and carrying their complex stories lightly over the almost 500 pages. Every relationship is dysfunctional. No-one is honest about who they really are and what they really want. But openness and therapy are the cure for many ills and may help Yasmin and Joe come to terms with their cultural and emotional misconceptions to find a happy ending.