Book review: Secrets and Sins by Jaishree Misra

Dreams and dilemmas, success and failure, happiness and disillusionment, secrets and sins...

Jaishree Misra has all points covered in her deliciously warm and yet heartbreaking tale of two star-crossed lovers torn by the ties of loyalty, affection and duty.

Secrets and Sins is a contemporary morality tale, pitting the desire to follow one’s heart against the obligations of home and family.

And sometimes what we wish for can be more dangerous and more damaging than we ever thought possible...

Riva Malia and Aman Khan are both of Indian origin and both students at Leeds University when they have a passionate affair.

But they are like creatures from different planets ... Riva was born and raised in London, dresses in short skirts, and smokes and drinks with the rest of her pals.

Aman has arrived fresh from Bombay and he is a good son to his Muslim parents ... he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke and he has never made love to a girl.

That doesn’t stop him falling for the beautiful, clever and sassy Riva who has a smile that does strange things to him.

But Aman quits his course and heads back to India when Riva rejects him for reliable Ben Owen who seems destined for a successful career.

Fifteen years later, Riva is now married to Ben and is a bestselling London novelist with the latest Orange Prize under her belt.

Aman, meanwhile, has reached even more glittering heights ... he is a Bollywood superstar with a glamorous wife, an adorable baby son and a luxury home in Bombay.

The sight of Aman’s face on London posters advertising his latest blockbuster still has the power to make her heart do its familiar flip, particularly as cold winds have been putting the chill factor into her once warm and loving marriage to Ben.

Ben never got to be the famous writer he always wanted to be, he has lost his job at the bank and Riva’s sister is telling her to ‘chuck him out.’

And behind the gloss of Aman’s marriage to the delectable Salma is deep dissatisfaction ... his lazy, complaining wife is the kind of woman who robs a man of happiness and tranquillity.

So when Riva and Aman are both selected as judges for the Cannes Film Festival, they have the chance to continue a relationship that they are both now convinced should never have ended.

But their newly kindled love could destroy everything they hold dear...

Misra’s captivating novel is full of clever and thought-provoking contrasts – east and west, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and acceptance, passion and practicality.

A charming and chastening story...

(Avon, paperback, £6.99)