The Lovers

LoveReading Says

Fans of lyrical literary fiction that gets to the heart of the human condition will be seduced by Yumna Kassab’s The Lovers. Told in bell-clear, poetic style, with a structure that parallels elements of stories with the beginning, middle and ending stages of relationships, it’s refreshingly different, and speaks in a mesmerising voice.

The lovers of the title are Amir and Jamila, individuals from very different sides of the track. Their tale opens with an arresting summary of Amir’s perspective: “What Amir loved most about Jamila was that she smelled of money…He could have died a happy man beneath her love, believing himself an entrant to Paradise”. At the same time, Amir is aware that “Women like her did not stay, women like her only joked until it was time for her to return to her home. At best it was a dalliance, a sweet pleasure to enjoy until it dulled”.

Through vignettes focussing on one or other character, we follow the lovers through their dalliance, witnessing the pull of desire, the souring counter tug of family expectations, and the fear of “what happens once we become used to each other, once we become bored.” Perhaps most poignant of all is the exploration of the tendency to expect too much, to place “too great a weight on our love beyond what it could bear. Perhaps my mistake was to make you the centre of my life”.

If you love thought-provoking fiction with haunting, dream-like vibes, The Lovers will almost certainly have you under its spell.

Joanne Owen

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