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    Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel
    Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel
    Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel

    Written by SJ Sindu

    Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Lakshmi, called Lucky, is an unemployed millennial programmer. She likes to dance, have a drink or two, and she makes art on commission. Fifty bucks gets you high-resolution digital images of anything you want (orcs, mermaids, cos-playing couples in sexy boudoir scenes) and a nice frameable print. Lucky's husband, Krishna, is an editor for a greeting card company. Both are secretly gay. They present their conservative Sri Lankan-American families with a heterosexual front, while each dates on the side. When Lucky's grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her mother's home to act as caretaker and unexpectedly reconnects with her childhood best friend and first lover, Nisha. Nisha has agreed to an arranged marriage with a man she doesn't know, but finds herself attracted to her old friend.

    The attraction is mutual and Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And what does Lucky want, anyway? To live openly means that Lucky would lose most of the community she was born into-a community she loves, an irreplaceable home. Lucky, an outsider no matter what choices she makes, is pushed to the breaking point.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJun 13, 2017
    ISBN9781681686165
    Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel

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    Reviews for Marriage of a Thousand Lies

    4/5

    78 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What a beautiful story! Really enjoyed the insight into another culture and the realities of breaking tradition
    • 4/5
      This is a disjointed novel about love and shame. Lucky's family immigrated from Sri Lanka, where they lived unsettled lives as Tamil minorities. After coming to the US, the customary Desi success story is turned on its ear for a family of three sisters, when Lucky's sister Vidya leaves home has a child with a Black lover, and Lucky, who is closeted, marries a fellow student, a Tamil gay man, to keep her parents off her back and to allow him to stay in the country. But now the pressure’s on to have a child, and Lucky's childhood best friend and lover Nisha is also being pressured to marry. The most unusual part of the story is that Lucky's parents are divorced, and Lucky's dad is now married to her mother's former best friend, Laila Aunty, and they all live in the same Massachusetts town. Just as being gay, childless, or single is verboten in the Tamil-American community, so is divorce, and the cause of her parents’ breakup is never explained, a major plot weakness. In the weeks before her own wedding, as Nisha pulls Lucky closer and then pushes her away, the reader grows impatient with them both and never quite regains sympathy as the resolution approaches. The confusing structure does improve by the ending, and some of the writing is very vivid, especially about Tamil cooking and clothing, but not so much the characters themselves. Quote: "The whiskey has carved me empty."
    • 4/5
      "Let me tell you something about being brown like me: your story is already written for you. Your free will, your love, your failure, all of it scratched into the cosmos before you're ever born. My mother calls it fate, the story written on your head by stars, by the gods, never by you."
      SJ Sindu, Marriage of a Thousand Lies

      I have not read many LGBTQ novels and I'm trying to change this. And what better time than during Pride month? Marriage of a Thousand Lies was a fascinating and interesting book. It reveals how challenging "coming out" can be for some individuals and why. Kris and Lucky are married, gay and in a marriage of pure convenience. They both lead secretive lifestyles due to the strict traditions and beliefs held in their Sri Lankan and Indian culture. Unfortunately, in numerous cultures, gay individuals are often disowned and rejected by their loved ones. I can't imagine my family disowning me simply because of my sexual preference. In Marriage of a Thousand Lies, my heart went out to Lucky, who was constantly between a rock and a hard place. Lucky wants her mother's approval and unconditional love, but this proves to be a challenge and central theme in the book. I found myself rooting for Lucky and wishing she would lead the life she so desperately craves. Sindu weaved a beautiful story full of complex and realistic characters. She is a remarkable storyteller and I look forward to more of her thought-provoking stories.

      Thanks to Edelweiss and Soho for giving me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.