Abandoned by her parents, Sameem Ali spent six and a half years growing up in a children's home. When she was told that her family wanted to take her back she couldn't wait to start her new life with them. Instead, she returned to a dirty house where she was subjected to endless chores. Her mother began to beat her and her unhappiness drove her to self-harm. So Sameem was excited when she boarded a plane with her mother to visit Pakistan for the first time. It was only after they arrived i...

Fifteen-year-old Hanna Berkenski journeys from her family's tiny apartment in the Warsaw Ghetto through an awful night spent in a cattle-car with her mother and sister to the welcoming orchestra at Auschwitz where she was to be a violinist for three years.As the train arrives at Auschwitz, flowers, sunshine and music feel like warm welcomes to her. She's been told she'll be spending the next few weeks in a "work camp" until her family can be reunited and relocated. Even the snowfla...

Life as Zeba knows it could be over for good . . .Zeba Khan is like any other sixteen-year-old girl: enjoying herself, waiting for exam results . . . and dreaming of the day she'll meet her one true love.Except her parents have other plans.In Pakistan for the summer, Zeba's world is shattered. Her future is threatened by an unthinkable - and forced - duty to protect her father's honour.But does she hold the secrets that will help her...

When their traditional business - selling saris - is increasingly sidelined by the new fashion for jeans and stitched salwar kameez, the Banwari Lal family must adapt. But instead of branching out, the sons remain apprenticed to the struggling shop and the daughters are confined to the family home. As envy and suspicion grip parents and children alike, the need for escape - whether through illicit love or in the making of pickles or the search for education - becomes ever stronger...

The Bride from India is a story of the ambitions and confl icts of the people from different cultures as they melt in the US pot. Manjit and Raj Pandher are Indian immigrants living in Houston, Texas. They succeed in marrying their son, Paul to Simmi from Punjab, after an elaborate Indian arranged matrimonial process, completely oblivious to the surprise awaiting them. On the other hand, the concept of the life in America that Simmi had developed in her mind from TV and internet is not wha...

Zara grows up privileged, in Pakistan. By the time she reaches her late twenties, she is single and no longer welcome in her home; death, illness and an arranged marriage has broken family bonds. She leaves Karachi, Pakistan to seek a new life in America. What begins as a quest for a new life turns into a journey of faith.Zara wants what every woman wants: a husband, a family and a home. Breaking free from the traditions of her culture where marriages are arranged, Zara overcomes t...

Karen Harris, commander of Unit T, had come to the streets of London, in an effort to curb the activities of an Italian cartel engaged in prostitution and abduction across Europe and beyond. Alongside this, many young homeless in the city are going missing with nothing being done about it. Added to her challenges, Karen starts investigating an agency that not only rents out companions, but is involved in more sinister operations. The interconnected problems lead to Karen going covert, in a...

A young bride in a village in India obediently marries the man her parents have chosen for her. When she arrives in her new husband's village, she is soon face-to-face with what her future will look like. Her brother-in-law stares at her with hunger, an elder aunt berates her and allows her no joy, and her husband has a job in the far-away city of Bombay.What she doesn't know yet, however, is that she has a gift. A gift that will help her navigate this new life with ease and power....

A spirited Indian woman falls in love with a writer she's never met, refusing all other suitors. When he appears, he's nothing like she'd dreamed. Her life with him is hell; his vanity and treachery nearly destroy her. She begins an affair with a handsome teacher, threatening her family's honor. Rashida's story unfolds against a sweeping backdrop of Indian history.

Everything about an Indian wedding is signi?cantthe mantras, the sacred ?re in the middle of the altar, the seven rounds around the ?re, and the colors of the brides sari. This day of an arranged marriage for the Sharma family is drenched in heavy rain, but far deeper problems lay within this particular Indian family, who has lived in Canada for the last thirty years.For Gangga Sharma, marrying Subash has been her dreamuntil her wedding day, when her dream turns into a nightmare. F...

A girl trapped by the colour of her skin. A politician desperate to regain power. A family ripped apart.16-year-old Pullamma, with her dark skin, has resigned herself to a limited future in her remote South Indian village. For this reason, she’s obliged her old-fashioned grandmother by not doing well in school. She’s also resigned to remaining unwed. For with three girls in the family, there’s simply not enough dowry to go around.Soon a wedding alliance arr...

A deal has been struck between two men in India—twenty-one hundred rupees in exchange for a young village woman named Rekha. Sent to Calcutta without knowing why, Rekha finds herself in the confines of a brothel with Jamuna, a prostitute and madam, who is resigned to her trade. In these conditions, Rekha must shape her destiny and find inner liberty.