Shona Karim is in love. When she first sets eyes on Parvez at the age of ten, she knows he is the man of her dreams. Just like her father - tricked into marriage by her shamelessly deceitful mother - she is a hopeless romantic. Years later, lying to themselves and their families, the young lovers elope to start a new life above a sweet shop in south London.

But Shona's inheritance is one of double lives and complicit deception. As time passes, and her children are born, it appears that she too has dark secrets that are about to be exposed. Can a family built on lies ever shake off its legacy? And can love ever be strong enough to right the wrongs of the past?

`Combining the cultural heritage of Monica Ali's Brick Lane with the intimate humour of family life in Roddy Doyle's novels' Easy Living

`Has the right blend of laughter and tears, a Brit-Asian crossover worth putting your feet up for' She