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Following swiftly in the footsteps of his hugely successful first novel, The Marriage Bureau For Rich People, Farahad Zama’s latest offering asks the question of whether love can triumph in the face of fierce family opposition. The story follows characters all connected to Mr Ali who owns a successful marriage bureau. All seems well in Mr Ali’s life but unknown to him, his son, Rehman is having a romantic love affair with a TV journalist, Usha. Meanwhile Mr Ali’s right-hand woman, Aruna is blissfully content with her wonderful husband and opulent mansion. That is until her spiteful sister-in-law Mani comes to stay. All hell breaks loose when Usha’s father finds out about her relationship with Rehman and what on earth will Mr and Mrs Ali say when they discover their son is dating a non-Muslim?

This hilarious take of the complications of Indian arranged marriages and match-making picked up the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, a prestigious award judged by authors, comedians and literary figures. Farahad Zama lives in south London and started out writing on his daily commute as an escape from his stressful job in the city. Born in Vizag on the Eastern coast of India, Farahad had an arranged marriage to a Vizag girl. They have been happily married for many years and have two sons. Read on to see the rest of Farahad Zama’s top 10 summer reads.

http://www.melissanathan.com/Award/

The Many Conditions Of Love by Farahad Zama, £11.99, amazon.co.uk