Sometimes we can’t escape the webs we are born into. Sometimes we are the architects of our own fall. Akash Choudry wants a love for all time, not an arranged marriage. Still, under the weight of parental hopes, he agrees to one. He and Jaya marry in a cloud of colour and spice in Bombay. Their marriage has barely begun when Akash embarks on an affair.Jaya can’t contemplate sharing her husband … contemplate sharing her husband with another woman, or looking past his indiscretions as her mother suggests. Cornered by sexual politics, she takes her fate into her own hands in the form of a lit match.
Nothing endures fire. As shards of their past threaten their future, will Jaya ever bloom into the woman she can be, and will redemption be within Akash’s reach?
[Literary, Women’s Fiction, Family Saga]
”All the Tomorrows by Nillu Nasser is a gripping tale of love and betrayal… The story is compelling and original, and it immediately transports the reader into the heart of a culture, a setting that reflects the thrills and perils of Bombay, capturing powerful images of the place in vivid clarity, from the dust of the overcrowded streets to the morality of Bombay. The characters are memorable, well-developed, and deeply explored. The conflict is strong and the reader is captivated as it escalates into a crisis point. All the Tomorrows is a wonderful read and the humanity that is injected into the writing will greatly appeal to readers. Nillu Nasser is a gifted and a great entertainer. This novel is balanced and utterly engrossing.” ~ Romuald Dzemo, Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews
“ALL THE TOMORROWS” by Nillu Nasser
Evolved Publishing presents a raw glimpse inside one couple’s struggles to deal with cultural traditions, and to reconcile those expectations with their own desires. [DRM-Free]
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Set in Bombay, the novel starts when Jaya, one year into an arranged marriage, discovers that her idealist, undemonstrative husband, Akash, has a lover. Criticised by her parents and feeling uncared for, her torment results in a truly shocking action, so stomach-turning I wondered if I could actually carry on reading the book. Brave of the writer to include it, and that I reacted so strongly shows that it was well-written; I did continue, anyway.
Akash is knocked sideways by Jaya’s extreme reaction, and his life takes a swift, sharp turn downwards. In short, this novel is about a falling apart and slow coming together… several of them.
The first twenty per cent is about Jaya and Akash’s younger years and the immediate fall-out of ‘the event’, after which we are moved swiftly on by being told that ‘the years sped by’, and suddenly it’s twenty years later, when we find out how the characters’ lives have fared in the interim, and what happens when they collide once more.
Nillu Nasser is a talented writer, without a doubt. One of the reasons I chose this is because I like to read about other cultures, and this book taught me stuff I didn’t know, so that’s a tick from me. Her storytelling ability held my interest, which is good for another big shiny red tick. On occasion the dialogue felt a little stilted, or a teensy bit Hollywood, and she fell into the debut novelist trap of using dialogue to impart information to the reader rather than keeping it realistic, but I’ll cut her some slack with this; it was not constant, and, as I said, it’s a debut novel, and a good one (nb, this is not her first published work, but her first published novel). Her characterisation was good; Jaya, her sister Ruhi, and their mother, were real, as were Akash, his friend, Tariq, and his lover, Soraya; Ms Nasser writes them all in clear definition, and even the secondary characters were completely convincing ~ another big tick!
I was, however, less sure about the pacing and structure. With the younger lives of Akash and Jaya taking up only around the first fifth of the book, I was given little time to care that much about what happened to them before suddenly they were older, and little had gone on in the intervening twenty years except more of the same. How much more effective it would have been to have cut the line about speeding years, and have a couple of interim chapters showing their lives after five, ten or fifteen years, too. Akash tells Soraya all he has suffered in those years, but I wanted to see it, not just read it in a spoken report. I loathe clichés, not least of all book reviewing ones, and you can’t play out every scene or the book would be a thousand pages long, but in this case I needed to be shown, not told. For me (and a review is only ever a personal opinion), a slow build up could have turned this 4* book into a 5* one.
As the rest of the story unravels, Ms Nasser continues to write with authenticity, care and sensitivity, and I’d say that if you like emotional family dramas, you’ll love this.
Odysseus and Penelope transplanted to modern India?
Nillu Nasser’s novel is a different take on the “love of a lifetime” story. Grounded in modern Indian culture and set in Mumbai, it chronicles roughly three decades in the lives of Akash, the husband, and Jaya his wife. Early in the marriage, Akash is unfaithful. When Jaya discovers him with his lover Saraya, her response is a spontaneous (and appalling) echo of the ancient Indian widow’s custom of suttee -she sets herself on fire. Akash happens to see it, through a window, and runs away in panic. The novel chronicles Jaya’s survival and metamorphosis into a spiritually freed independent woman, contrasted with Akash’s journey of self-condemnation, penance, and eventual redemption. Overtones of cultural tensions and spiritual unrest in modern India are mirrored in their individual transitions from typical and traditional Hindus to independent thinkers who redefine for themselves the meaning of family, friendship, loyalty and love. The outcome of it all may not resonate with western readers whose concepts of love and family do not match Jaya’s or Akash’s, but their evolution in character and point of view is fascinating. So are the sidebar vignettes of life in Mumbai, a modern metropolis in flux between western ideas and values and the ancient traditions which still govern the attitudes and behaviors of its citizens. Ms. Nasser’s strength as an author is in the beautiful unfolding of character and relationships, and it gives the novel both emotional immediacy and continuity. 4 stars for this compelling glimpse into the age-old love triangle’s resolution in a different world. My thanks to Candid Book Reviews for the ARC. This review is voluntary, independent, and uncompensated.
First, I want to thank Nillu Nasser for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.
All The Tomorrows by Nillu Nasser was a book a book a little out of my comfort zone as the tone of the book was written from a different culture than I was used to reading. So, some of the wording and dialect were different than I am used to. Once I got past that I really enjoyed the story.
This book was dedicated to Jan who believed and who was patient.
This book had everything from arranged marriages, infidelity, being caught, a terrible accident, a coward of a husband, recovery period, etc.
Nillu brought out so many emotions and so many feels to this book. You could tell she was extremely passionate about this subject matter and about the characters. So many times, I wanted to reach into the book and give her Jaya a hug! Don’t even get me started on how much I loathed Akash.
5 Stars
Intense and gripping
This is not a typical romantic story, but it’s about a relationship, more like a forced relationship. Akash and Jaya are in an arranged marriage, and try their best to make it work. The story is well written, as it enters the world of arranged marriages, but brings two people together and divides them as they try to make it work. The setting is India, and it’s a big part of the story, as the culture is the backdrop for this story. A great story that gives a new perception on love, and related emotions within a marriage that seems to be doomed.