Language English, Bengali Media type Print ISBN 978-0755215003 Country United Kingdom | Publisher Monsoon Press Pages 246 Originally published 27 October 2005 Page count 246 Followed by My Bollywood Wedding | |
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Publication date 27 October 2005 (2005-10-27) Genres Romanticism, Humorous Fiction, Fiction Similar My Bollywood Wedding, Saris and the City, Adam Akbar ‑ Master of | ||
The A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage is a 2005 romantic comedy novel written by Rekha Waheed about a single Asian woman looking to settle using old traditions and new world savvy.
Contents
Plot summary
Maya Malik is a 28-year-old single lonely Asian girl who wants an attractive husband and a grand ostentatious wedding. Her biggest fear is the realisation that she has to find a husband from a diminishing stock of eligible bachelors.
From the endless supply of unsuitable grooms-to-be, interfering aunties, broken protocols, to wedding weepers, non-stop community pressures. The novel follows Maya going through being single and the arranged marriage process to realise that she can use old world traditions, and new world savvy to get what she wants.
Maya endures family introductions, blind dates, with Internet meetings in a journey that takes her from London to New York to Dhaka, and then back to London again. When close friend, Jhanghir Rahman, announces his sudden wedding, Maya realises that with love, life and marriage, a girl can use old world traditions, and new world savvy to get what she wants.
Development
In November 2005, Waheed told CyberSylhet.com, A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage "merges old world tradition with new world savvy". In a February 2011 interview with The Asian Writer she said, she wrote the novel "to dispel myths surrounding the custom and help readers distinguish between the virtues of arranged marriages and the illegality of forced marriages."
Release
Monsoon Press secured A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage following a reading at London's 2005 Spitalfield's Literary Event. The book was launched at Bangladesh Centre on 17 November 2005. The event was attended by luminaries from Penguin, MBA Literary Agency, Bloomsbury, Saqi Books, Rebecca Winfield Agency, East Side Books, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Local Government, and community organisations.
Critical response
Redhotcurry.com said "The A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage is a sassy story that unapologetically celebrates the realities of an age-old tradition for the new generation... The book is a contemporary, witty and proud representation of the controversial topic that has already created considerable interest... The A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage reflects the splendid spirit of Asian traditions that has mass appeal. Helen Fraser, Managing Director of Penguin (UK) called the novel "witty and charming."
Sequel
As a result of the success of this novel, Little Black Dress asked Waheed to write sequel My Bollywood Wedding, which was published in 2010.