Love Marriage

An outstanding debut novel of fractured family relationships in modern Sri Lanka, from the author of the Women's Prize-winning Brotherless Night

In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak only of two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage.

Reverse a family tree and branches of blood are whittled down to one person – in this case, first-generation American Yalini. The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, Yalini finds herself caught between the traditions of her ancestors and the lure of her own modern world. When she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, Yalini is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present.

While Kumaran's loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family's roots through a series of marriages – Love Marriage, Arranged Marriage, and all that lies in between.

About the Author

V.V. Ganeshananthan's work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among other publications. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota and co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast on Literary Hub, which is about the intersection of literature and the news. Love Marriage is her first novel. Her novel Brotherless Night won the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction.

Reviews

"Ganeshananthan mixes up the sequence, tossing before the reader shards of memories which look like pieces of broken bangles. But when we look at those broken bangles through her kaleidoscope, her twisting of the lens reveals patterns that make it possible to understand aspects of the conflict, even if the horrors cannot be excused" ―Independent

"Ganeshananthan has created a slow-burning and beautifully written debut in Love Marriage. It is an evocative examination of Sri Lankan cultural mores, and the way one family is affected by love and war" ―Financial Times

"An unusual and accomplished first novel... Sadly topical and widely relevant, but also an assured piece of writing and a commentary on a situation many of us know little about ―Cornflower

"Sri Lanka's civil war forms the backdrop to a powerful debut novel that explores the diverse possibilities of different marriages.... Moving and intelligent" ―Metro

"In spare, lyrical prose, VV Ganeshananthan's debut novel tells the story of two Sri Lankan Tamil families over four generations who, despite civil war and displacement, are irrevocably joined by marriage and tradition... Powerful" ―MS Magazine