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...

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...

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...

A courageous and timely novel, Tears of Mehndi explores the rich, complex and often heartbreaking lives of a tight-knit community in Vancouver’s Little India. Through the perspectives of several women whose lives intertwine over a generation, Raminder Sidhu deftly exposes the shrouded violence within the Indo-Canadian community, a difficult and often dissembled subject. Sidhu’s characters are women caught between two cultures, struggling to understand the traditions they are oblig...

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...

An unforgettable novel about what happens when a marriage collapsesShagun is a woman of unassailable social standing, married to a man chosen for her—a rising executive. Her lover is her husband's boss. She asks for a divorce, and all hell breaks loose.Locked in a venomous legal battle for custody of their eight-year-old son and two-year-old daughter, Shagun and Raman begin a journey that will have unforetold consequences. Set against the backdrop of upper-mi...

A beautiful, “deeply affecting” (Kirkus Reviews) novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart and The Mistress of Spices about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another.Sweeping across the twentieth century, from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas, Before We Visit the Goddess takes readers on an extraordin...

After three years of dating, Anita Jain finally got fed up with the New York singles scene. As her Indian parents continued to pressure her to find a mate, Jain couldn't help asking herself the question: is arranged marriage really any worse than Craigslist? Full of romantic chance encounters, nosy relatives, and dozens of potential husbands, Marrying Anita is a refreshingly honest look at our own expectations and the modern search for the perfect mate.

In her thought-provoking, uplifting new novel, Shobhan Bantwal vividly blends the nuances of contemporary Indian-American culture with an unconventional romance. . .At thirty-one, Meena Shenoy has a fulfilling career at a New Jersey high-tech firm. Not that it impresses her mother and aunts, who make dire predictions about her ticking biological clock. Men are drawn to Meena's dainty looks and she dates regularly, but hasn't met someone who really intrigues her. Someone professiona...

A woman in an arranged marriage is liberated by a desire that threatens her family and futureAn only child raised to become a dutiful wife, Astha is filled with unnamed longings and untapped potential. In the privacy of her middle-class Indian home, she dreams of the lover who will touch her soul. But her future was mapped out long ago: betrothal to a man with impeccable credentials, with motherhood to follow.At first, Astha's arranged union with handsome, wo...

In a city where old is meeting new, daughters are surprising mothers, and love is breaking all the rules, this heartfelt and wickedly funny cross-cultural debut novel introduces a smart, irreverent young woman searching for independence and matrimony in a culture bound by tradition.Between elegant soirees and the occasional mortifying mishap, Aisha Bhatia’s job as guest relations manager at New Delhi’s five-star Grand Orchid Hotel is intermittently fabulous—she certainly knows her ...

Set against the tumult of the 1947 Partition, Manju Kapur's acclaimed first novel captures a life torn between family, desire, and loveThe one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother.Virmati is the eldest of eleven children, born to a respectable family in Amritsar. Her world is shaken when she falls in love with a married man. Charismatic Harish is a respected professor and her family's tenant. Virmati takes up with Harish and finds herself ...