Taking a look at Jeevani Charika’s new novel, A Convenient Marriage, and thinking about evocative food.
It was the perfect marriage… until they fell in love.
Chaya is a young woman torn between her duty to family and her life in the UK. While her traditional Sri Lankan parents want her to settle down into marriage, what they don’t know is that Chaya has turned away the one true love of her life, Noah, terrified of their disapproval.
Gimhana is hiding his sexuality from his family. It’s easy enough to pretend he’s straight when he lives half a world away in the UK. But it’s getting harder and harder to turn down the potential brides his parents keep finding for him.
When Chaya and Gimhana meet, a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution to their problems. Together they have everything – friendship, stability and their parents’ approval. But when both Chaya and Gimhana find themselves falling in love outside of their marriage, they’re left with an impossible decision – risk everything they’ve built together, or finally follow their heart?
Want to read more? Jeevani’s novel is available from 12th November on several platforms, click here to order it.
In her novel, one of the ways Gimhana shows he cares is by cooking for Chaya. Jeevani posed the question as to whether there was a food that evoked a particular memory for me.
I’d have to say spaghetti with lamb ragù. As a child, my Italian father would cook the main meal about once a week. He was a good cook, taught by his mother, and his speciality was the spaghetti with ragù. His secret was to simmer the sauce for hours on end. The whole house would be filled with the deep aroma of tomatoes, lamb, onion and garlic. Despite many attempts at cooking the meal myself, I’ve never quite been able to emulate the succulent taste of his wonderful sauce. Maybe one day!
Another food that evokes memories is Welsh cakes, baked by my mother when I was a child, but I’ve already talked about those here.
Do the readers have any foods that evoke memories? Tell us about them below.
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