Bitter Sweets

Roopa Farooki

St. Martin's Griffin

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With this spellbinding first novel about the destructive lies three immigrant generations of a Pakistani/Bangladeshi family tell each other, Roopa Farooki adds a fresh new voice to the company of Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arudhati Roy.
Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose wheeler-dealer father never misses a business opportunity and whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. Ricky will learn the truth about his seductive bride, but the way is already paved for a future of double lives and deception--family traits that will filter naturally through the generations, forming an instinctive and unspoken tradition. Even as a child, their daughter Shona, herself conceived on a lie and born in a liar's house, finds telling fibs as easy as ABC. But years later, living above a sweatshop in South London's Tooting Bec, it is Shona who is forced to discover unspeakable truths about her loved ones and come to terms with what superficially holds her family together--and also keeps them apart--across geographical, emotional and cultural distance. 
Roopa Farooki has crafted an intelligent, engrossing and emotionally powerful Indian family saga that will stay with you long after you've read the last page.

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Bitter Sweets
Nadim Rub's Most Magnificent DeceptionHENNA WAS THIRTEEN when she was gleefully married off to the eldest son of one of the best families in Calcutta, and her marriage was achieved by an audacious network of lies as elaborate and brazen as the golden embroidery on her scarlet wedding sari. Henna's paternal family were liars by trade, shopkeepers from the Bengal who had made their money by secretly selling powders and pastes of suspect origin, to alleviate the boredom and fatigue of the British expats serving out their purgatory in local government in pre-Independence

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Janice  rated it  
Mar 26, 2011
Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. when Ricky does learn the truth about his seductive bride, the way has already been paved toward a future of double lives and deception--family tra ...more
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Amy  rated it  
Feb 4, 2011
I loved this book. It dealt with the theme of deception in families, and considering the fact that every family has it's secrets, it seems like anyone could relate to this novel. This story spanned generations and continents with ease. The plot was intricately woven and you can't help but love the c ...more
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Celeste  rated it  
Jul 17, 2009
Although the back cover classifies this as an Indian saga, to me it was more of a London story. I enjoyed the phrases and "accents" that I could place in England or that I had experienced in conversations with my own friends who were immigrants from India and Pakistan. I really liked all o ...more
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About the Author

Roopa Farooki

ROOPA FAROOKI was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and brought up in London.  She graduated from New College, Oxford in 1995 and worked in advertising before writing fiction full time. Roopa now lives in North London and Southwest France with her husband and son.  Visit Roopa online at www.roopafarooki.com.

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Bitter Sweets
Roopa Farooki

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Griffin
September 2008
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780312382063
ISBN10: 0312382065
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 384 pages
$13.95
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
St. Martin's Press
November 2007
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780312360528
ISBN10: 0312360525
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 368 pages
$24.95

e-Book Agency

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e-Book Agency
St. Martin's Press
November 2007
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429928151
ISBN10: 1429928158
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 352 pages
$9.99
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