Matt McAvoy Book Review

This book had it all for me: love, romance, exotic culture, tragedy, mystery, and relationships. I finished it in a day and highly recommend it.

Salem is a member of a Yemeni family cursed by generational honour killings. That this blood revenge between clans commenced before he was born and has taken the life of an innocent sister does not make things any safer for him, and he is forced in 1966 to find refuge and make a new home for himself in Birmingham in the UK. Here he falls in love with Mary, a Catholic from Northern Ireland. Mary brings to their relationship dreams and conflicts of her own.

‘A woman should be honoured and respected but a man should have control.’ This Yemeni attitude towards women interpreted in a modern British context is very well described, as are the problems it creates. Whilst Salem longs for the reassurance of his homeland and his religion, Mary seeks meaning from sources personal to her. Differing cultural expectations, loneliness and depression begin to consume the genuine love they have for each other until trouble from an all too familiar source coats an already difficult situation with despair.

I liked the villain. He was a good idea and his presence added that touch of ‘thriller’ to a novel that was largely relationship based. Because of this I would like to have seen more of him, particularly throughout the middle of the book at the time when the protagonist was struggling only with family issues. It would have broken up the tension that was accelerating so rapidly that I thought it was sure to end badly (happily, I was wrong), but it would also have better linked the later activities of this character with his ominous presence earlier in the novel. That is my only suggestion for improvement.

Yemen today remains largely a tribal culture, and because of the tragedy of their ongoing civil war as well, Yemeni women are exposed to discrimination and violence. I bore this in mind as I read this very interesting novel. It is dedicated to ‘peace, hope and tolerance.’