In present-day London, Yasmin Ghorami is 26, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose formidable mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist. The gulf between families is vast. So, too, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe. As the wedding day draws near, misunderstandings, infidelities and long-held secrets upend both Yasmin’s relationship and that of her parents, a “love marriage,” according to the family lore that Yasmin has believed all her life.

As what-if novels go, this sensitive thriller --- a highly marketable offering from a Booker Prize-shortlisted author --- is a bombshell...a blonde bombshell. It features a royal personage with a strong resemblance to Diana, Princess of Wales, who fakes her own death and takes up ordinary life in small-town America.