Showing results by author "Monica Ali" in All Categories

Yasmin Ghorami is 26, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose formidable mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist. The gulf between families is vast. So, too, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe. As the wedding day draws near, misunderstandings, infidelities, and long-held secrets upend both Yasmin’s relationship and that of her parents, a “love marriage”, according to the family lore that Yasmin has believed all her life.

Monica Ali's stunning second book is a collection of stories, set in the Alentejo province of Portugal, linked by characters and by a vivid sense of place and time. Teresa, a beautiful young girl from the village, is supposed to marry a suitable man from the same community, but she wants to see the world. Vasco is a café owner who is losing business to the new Internet café down the road.

Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.

Celebrated author Monica Ali was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and was named one of the 20 best young British novelists by Granta. In the Kitchen stars Gabe Lightfoot, an executive chef overseeing an eclectic kitchen staff - and dealing with a dead porter and an intriguing young lady from Belarus.

When Princess Diana died in Paris's Alma tunnel, she was 37 years old. Had she lived, she would turn 50 on July 1, 2011. Who would the beloved icon be if she were alive today? What would she be doing? And where? One of the most versatile and bold writers of our time, Monica Ali has imagined a different fate for Diana in her spectacular new novel, Untold Story.

Zwei Kulturen, zwei Familien, eine Verlobung: Kann das gutgehen? Yasmin und Joe haben große Pläne für die Zukunft. Doch bevor es für die beiden angehenden Ärzte ans Heiraten geht, steht das erste Kennenlernen ihrer Familien an. Und das hat es in sich. Denn während Yasmins traditionsbewusste Eltern schon bei einem Zungenkuss empört den Fernseher ausschalten, eilt Joes Mutter ein Ruf als feministische Ikone voraus. Und tatsächlich hält das Abendessen im noblen Primrose Hill überraschende Entwicklungen bereit.

Zwei Kulturen, zwei Familien, eine Verlobung: Kann das gutgehen? Yasmin und Joe haben große Pläne für die Zukunft. Doch bevor es für die beiden angehenden Ärzte ans Heiraten geht, steht das erste Kennenlernen ihrer Familien an. Und das hat es in sich. Denn während Yasmins traditionsbewusste Eltern schon bei einem Zungenkuss empört den Fernseher ausschalten, eilt Joes Mutter ein Ruf als feministische Ikone voraus. Und tatsächlich hält das Abendessen im noblen Primrose Hill überraschende Entwicklungen bereit.

1985. Uprooted from her home in Bangladesh, 18-year-old Nazneen is sent to London for an arranged marriage with a much older man. Her new life is strange and bewildering - the busy streets and crowded tower blocks of the East End are a world away from the rural village she grew up in, and she struggles to adapt to living with her self-important husband, Chanu. Back in Bangladesh, Nazneen's sister Hasina has eloped with the man she loves, and been disowned by her family.