A Suitable Boy

Written by Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy is a magnum opus about four large extended families – the story takes place in the early 1950s, in newly independent India. The novel opens with Mrs Rupa Mehra, head of one of the four families around which the story is centred, as she tries to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, with a ‘suitable boy’.

Replete with themes of race, religion and class, the mother’s journey to find a suitable man to wed her daughter is not a straightforward one. Seth expertly paints a richly imagined world of four extended families as they manoeuver through a web of love and ambition, humour and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the appalling violence. Rarely, such a long book {it’s almost 1400 pages long} is both an entertaining read and an intellectually satisfying challenge. Vikram Seth has more than succeeded in both areas.

This poster is inspired by Haresh Khanna, who is a passionate shoe manufacturer and is one of the ‘suitable boys’ in the novels. A dramatic and unforgettable tale of various characters from India, this book is one of the longest novels published in a single volume. Trust us; this one is indeed worth adding to your collection.