LEAVE AND COME BACK

When a Toronto-based woman attends an elaborate wedding with her South Asian family in New Jersey, emotions are as intricate as bridal mehndi designs.

Simran Gopal is in her early 30s, and while her career has hit a rough spot, she’s finally in the relationship of her dreams, with her best friend Liv Bridgers’ brother, Leo. He’s handsome, smart, funny, and wild about her—but she’s reluctant to introduce him to her family, especially since it’s been seven years since she communicated with the aunt and uncle who adopted her after her parents died. When younger cousin Geeta’s wedding invitation arrives, Simran calls Geeta’s sister, Kavitha, who throws down the gauntlet: Either Simran comes to the nuptials, or they’re done, for good. She heads south—and so does Leo, who isn’t about to let his big love find someone else. Now the feisty Simran is up against her far feistier aunt Veena; they function more like mother and daughter, and have many grievances with each other. In her aunt’s eyes, the worst sin Simran could commit would be to marry outside of their Tamil community; no one wants this formidable matriarch to know Leo is Simran’s love interest. Thus, the cousins—plus Geeta’s groom, Rishi—hatch a plan based on their favorite Bollywood movie to carry Leo through the wedding-week festivities without arousing Veena’s suspicions. Whether or not that plan works is way beside the point, as everyone learns a lot about themselves and each other as they scheme. Many novels of the past few decades have offered versions of Jane Austen plots set in India or in large Indian diaspora areas, but few of those actually rise, as this one does, to the level of Austen’s devastatingly accurate reads on how tightly connected communities celebrate, argue, mourn, and forgive.

A warm, witty comedy of manners in which family members matter as much as the marriage plot.