Bombay registered clerk Ismet Nassin spots a beautiful village girl from the window of his train. He disembarks, presents himself — and the girl, Khateja Haveri, treats him like the fool he is. This will set the tone for the rest of their lives.
For Nassin, who is convinced an angel has knocked him on the head, offers the girl’s father a small fortune for her hand in marriage; and her father, an exceptionally venal fellow, blackmails her into going through with the ceremony by threatening to marry her off to the village idiot.
To Khatija, marriage to this stranger from Bombay doesn’t mean acquiescence. Ismet moons about, patient, determined, sure that his love will win her over; if living with his long-suffering mother isn’t working out, they can emigrate to Durban.
Khatija fights back every step of the way — with indolence and a sharp tongue, alliances with other wives, and some of the funniest strategies in feminist literature.
The author, scion of the prominent South African Coovadia clan, was born in Durban and has lived in the United States for the past 12 years. He is writing about his grandparents, and the warmth of oral family histories suffuses The Wedding (recently shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award).
But recounting family stories can be a problem, with a discreet veil pulled over those parts of the story a grandson is not privy to. So when eventually Khateja gives in, ever so slightly — well, she’d have to, or there would be no children, never mind literary grandchildren — we never know why.