LIFTING THE VEIL

How does the diaspora experience inform the way we look at, and participate in, matrimony? In her latest book, Love Marriage, British-Bangladeshi author Monica Ali traverses the tricky terrain of South Asian coupledom as it fields the onslaught of generational and cultural trauma.

- Sana Goyal

“I can’t find my crystal ball at the moment,” says Monica Ali, when asked about the future of marriage as an age-old institution, given that young people the world over are increasingly choosing not to wed. But taking a wild guess, she posits that the tradition is going to be with us for a long time to come. “It is under great strain though,” she quickly adds, “as societies become increasingly atomised.”

Monica Ali’s new novel, Love Marriage—her fifth book, and her first in a decade—is about modern ways of living and loving in Britain. It took about four years to write, says Ali. But once she had her opener (‘In the Ghorami household, sex was never mentioned’) there was lift-off. As someone who has always written very tight first drafts, she knew she was writing too much (the first draft was 2,40,000 words), but she enjoyed being brutal at the editing table. The final book, which is just under 500 pages, is a lush family saga, full of twists and turns, at once traditional in form and also set on upending old ways. “I am really playing with that old trope of Western freedom versus Indian duty within families,” she explains.