The Matchmaker's List

Narrator Soneela Nankani builds from a slow start in this textured story of Indian-Canadian matchmaking in Toronto. Raina Anand, who is nearly 30, submits to her grandmother Nani's matchmaking efforts until she finally rebels, taking the drastic step of pretending to be gay. In the first half of the story, Nankani's pacing is slow, and Raina and Nani's dating comments aren't formatted for audio clarity. Nankani also sounds consistently worried. This anxious foreshadowing never materializes into a plot development. However, her narration perfectly represents the accents of the characters and is clear and smooth. This professionalism moves the story along until Raina's repressed feelings emerge and energize the story. As Raina discovers her path, Nankani's narration becomes more appealing, and the final result is layered intergenerational chick-lit. C.A. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 11, 2019
Lalli’s debut is a skillful exploration of how the younger generation in an immigrant Indian community in Toronto bristles at tradition while discovering comfort and strength in family and community. Raina, 29, works at a multinational bank and agrees to check out a list of eligible Indian men her grandmother has vetted for an arranged marriage. But the bachelors all fall short of Dev, the dashing, globe-trotting banker from Raina’s past whom she fell in love with, but who couldn’t commit. The pressure mounts as Raina’s best-friend Shaya, a pediatric resident, prepares for her own wedding—on Raina’s 30th birthday—to white Catholic pediatrician Julian. After a series of hilarious dating misfires, a desperate Raina lets her grandmother believe she’s a lesbian to stop the matchmaking pressure—a duplicity that isolates her from her grandmother, Shaya, and Asher, a white groomsman who recognizes Raina as a “lost soul.” Raina’s ultimate appreciation of her grandmother’s loyalty, the joy of her community and culture, and a man with whom she “could be the woman who didn’t lose herself to love” helps her claim a life of her own. Lalli’s sharp-eyed tale of cross-cultural dating, family heartbreak, the strictures of culture, and the exuberance of love is both universal and timeless.