This book was so much more than the story of a search for a suitable husband for Lata, which I thought it would be from the start of the book. I learned a lot about the religious and political tensions in post-independence India and, whilst sometimes the descriptions and detail felt a bit too much, overall it added depth and understanding to the core narrative. The ending felt disappointing in some ways, and yet, had the story finished the way I'd hoped, it would have perhaps been less true to life and maybe more disastrous in the long term. It took me longer to read this book than I would have liked, as I did get bogged down in some of the descriptive passages, but it's a good read that does more than merely entertain.