The Love Match

Gr 7 Up–Zahra Kahn starts the summer after graduation with problems. Her father died two years ago, leaving her to help support her family, immigrants from Bangladesh living in Paterson, NJ. Since his death, she hasn’t been able to write. She works double shifts at a tea shop job with her best friends, who are preparing for a college life that Zahra can’t afford. Her mother drags her to a Bengali wedding, where she brags about being descended from royalty. A rich auntie perks up and suggests Zahra meet her son, who is also 18 and going to Zahra’s dream school, Columbia, in the fall. Soon, the parents arrange a match between Zahra and the haughty, scowling Harun; together, the teens set out to sabotage any wedding plans their parents have. Back at the tea shop, a beguiling Bangladeshi orphan, Nayim, has started working there, charming Zahra by serenading her and encouraging her to write again. As she spends more time with Harun, they become friends, or maybe more, setting up a Pride & Prejudice–like triangle that doesn’t really percolate. As Harun and Zahra become close, their story makes for good romantic reading, but Nayim’s part never seems compelling. Instead, Taslim’s novel shines when it focuses on Zahra’s struggle between family duty and her dreams, surrounded by a rich cast of characters and well-drawn setting in Paterson’s Bangladeshi community.