A Suitable Boy is a novel by Vikram Seth, released in 1993. At 1349 pages and 591,552 words, the book is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language. A sequel, to be called A Suitable Girl, is due for publication in 2013. A Suitable Boy is set in post-independence, post-partition India. The novel follows the story of four families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable boy to marry her daughter. The 1349-page novel alternatively offers satirical and earnest examinations of national political issues in the period leading up to... the first post-Independence national election of 1952, including inter-sectarian animosity, the status of lower caste peoples such as the jatav, land reform and the eclipse of the feudal princes and landlords, academic affairs, inter- and intra-family relations and a range of further issues of importance to the characters. A suitable boy centres on Mrs. Rupa Mehra's efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, with a "suitable boy". At the heart of the novel it is a love story, set in a young, newly independent India.
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| Author: | Vikram Seth |
| Genre: | Novel, Fiction, Romance novel |
| Year published: | 1994 |
| Number of editions: | 17 |