Bitter sweets

July 16, 2007
This rollicking debut from former London ad exec Farooki weaves “an audacious network of lies as elaborate and brazen as the golden embroidery on scarlet wedding sari.” Henna, an illiterate 13-year-old Calcutta shopkeeper’s daughter, is passed off as the educated 17-year-old daughter of a successful businessman in order to marry her into one of the city’s best families. The lie reverberates deliciously through three generations of Henna’s family: Farooki’s witty narrative winds its way over some 50 years, moving Henna, husband Rashid (“Ricky”) and daughter Shona from Calcutta to Bangladesh, Pakistan and London, where Shona elopes and raises her twin boys above a confectioner’s shop. Unflinching insights into Henna and others are well done, and allusions to literature and philosophy buoy them up. Farooki pulls off a lightly spun epic tale with effortless charm and more than enough delightful twists to keep pages turning. Even the characters’ most unexpected and disastrous choices seem somehow inevitable, and one is quickly resigned to rooting for the wily woman at the center.