Whitcoulls recommends Monica Ali and Isabel Allende

Love Marriage by Monica Ali.  She wrote a wonderful book called Brick Lane several years ago which made her one of the young darlings on the literary scene. Love Marriage is the opposite of an arranged marriage and this is about a Bengali immigrant family living in London; Yasmin the daughter is a medical student engaged to another trainee doctor but their families could not be more different and the love marriage is far from smooth sailing Violeta by Isabel Allende.  Fiction, this is a 100-year-old woman outlining her life to her grandson. It takes place in an unnamed country in South America, and Violeta, the key character, was born into the Spanish Flu and nears the end of her life during Covid. In between there’s the Great Depression, marriage to an entirely unsuitable man and then a wild affair which changes everything, and has ramifications for the rest of her life. And all set against the background of history during those 100 years. It’s terrific. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.