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2003 Longlist

The Wedding

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

Family destiny can hang from the slenderest of threads. For Ismet Nassim, a clerk of modest prospects and generous girth from Bombay, everything turns on the moment when, from the window of the train on which he happens to be sitting comfortably, he spies a young woman standing next to a village well – not just any woman but the most beautiful woman in the world.

Should he pull down the shade and resume his quiet bachelor ways, his placid existence of ledgers and balance sheets? Or throw caution to the wind and pursue this creature, about whom he knows nothing whatsoever? Of course, fate forces him off the train. Ismet pursues his vision of beauty, whose name is Khateja, and marries her the very next day. Destiny (and, as it turns out, Khateja’s own family) heaves a sigh of relief.
Ismet, however, is in for the fight of his life. Though she agrees to marry this baggy, shambling clerk, Khateja also resolves to make his life as miserable as possible, informing him even before they exchange vows that love and obedience will play no part in this arrangement. Thrown together so in what seems a hilariously awkward misalliance of spirits and souls, a weary but determined Ismet and the fiercely eloquent Khateja forge their way ahead.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Imraan
Coovadia

Imraan Coovadia was born in Durban in 1970. He is the author of the novels The Wedding, Green-Eyed Thieves, High Low In-between, and The Institute for Taxi Poetry. He has also published a study of V.S. Naipaul, as well as a collection of essays, Transforma­tions, and has contributed to publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, N+1, The Independent, Threepenny Review, Chimurenga, and The Times of India. His work has won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the University of Johannes­burg Prize, the M-Net Prize, and a South African Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He is a graduate of Harvard College and directs the writing programme at the University of Cape Town.

Photo Credit: Victor Dlamini

Imraan Coovadia was born in Durban in 1970. He is the author of the novels The Wedding, Green-Eyed Thieves, High Low In-between, and The Institute for Taxi Poetry. He has also published a study of V.S. Naipaul, as well as a collection of essays, Transforma­tions, and has contributed to publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, N+1, The Independent, Threepenny Review, Chimurenga, and The Times of India. His work has won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the University of Johannes­burg Prize, the M-Net Prize, and a South African Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He is a graduate of Harvard College and directs the writing programme at the University of Cape Town.

Photo Credit: Victor Dlamini

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
South Africa
Original Language
English
Publisher
Picador

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