Zarina Bonass

The Boy With The Patang begins in India in the late 1960’s. It tells of the marriage between Sahira and Sami.
Sahira is a daughter of the wealthy Shamshad family and is regarded as an enigma by other members of her social circle; challenging, as she does, the conventional expectations of the society that she has been born into.
The relationship between Sahira and her new husband is a good one, built on friendship and understanding, rather than love and passion. The couple move to England for the purposes of Sami’s business plans, where life for Sahira moves at a fairly easy pace in all respects except the one: as much as she respects, and is fond of Sami, she cannot love him. This dilemma is further heightened when, whilst holidaying in Andalusia, Sahira finds herself dangerously drawn to an Englishman. The consequences of this attraction are devastating and cause Sahira to revise how she views both her marriage and Sami.
This novel follows the course of a semi-arranged marriage, whereby Sahira enters her marriage willingly, but finds that she cannot fulfil the traditional role of an Indian housewife. She is unable to find the love and passion that traditionally go with this. Through the words of Sahira, the novel explores how it is that a marriage, which should have been happy and fulfilling, is flawed in a way that reflects Sahira’s own complex personality.
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