Always a rebel, Marianne was the first girl in her class to bleach her hair and learn how to smoke. A few boyfriends and one abortion later she falls in love with Salim, the proud and elegant Pakistani with eyes like treacle. East meets West in a passionate mixed marriage.

Always a rebel, Marianne was the first girl in her class to bleach her hair and learn how to smoke. A few boyfriends and one abortion later she falls in love with Salim, the proud and elegant Pakistani with eyes like treacle. East meets West in a passionate mixed marriage. However, Marianne knows little of the Islamic view of motherhood. When his wife proves unfaithful, Salim reasons that she is morally incapable of bring up her children and kidnaps them while she is at work...

Review
“The novel assumes the tension of detective fiction-the mother-child detail is all painfully right. This is a nicely balanced account of marital breakdown in peculiarly difficult circumstances” Sunday Times “'Deborah Moggach captures brilliantly the basic incompatibilities and misunderstandings that arise when two people have little knowledge of each other's culture-both funny and moving'” Sunday Express “A real page-turner” Sunday Times

Deborah Moggach is the author of many successful novels including the bestseller The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Her screenplays include The Diary of Anne Frank and the film of Pride and Prejudice, which was nominated for a BAFTA. She lives in North London.