Ingrid Persaud

"After Betty Ramdin's abusive husband dies, she invites a colleague, Mr. Chetan, to move in with her and her son, Solo, as their lodger. Over time, these three form an unconventional family, loving each other deeply and depending upon one another. Then, one a fateful night, Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr. Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment. Ultimately sends him running to live a lonely life in New York City, devastating Betty in the process. Yet, both Solo and Betty are buoyed by the continuing love and friendship of Mr. Chetan, until his own burdensome secret is uncovered with heart breaking consequences. In vibrant, addictive Trinidadian prose, Love After Love questions who and how we love, the obligations of family, and the consequences of choices made in desperation"--

A Novel

Love After Love

Louise 

Listened to the audiobook which is read by the author (highly recommend) helped me to be completely engrossed in this story. This book is literally the essence of what it is to be human and have human connection.
This is one of my very few 5* reads this year. 

Loved: the pace of the story, the characters, the setting, LGBTQ representation, how love can come in many different forms, highlighting of sensitive topics such as domestic violence, self harm and homophobia.

"After Betty Ramdin's abusive husband dies, she invites a colleague, Mr. Chetan, to move in with her and her son, Solo, as their lodger. Over time, these three form an unconventional family, loving each other deeply and depending upon one another. Then, one a fateful night, Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr. Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment. Ultimately sends him running to live a lonely life in New York City, devastating Betty in the process. Yet, both Solo and Betty are buoyed by the continuing love and friendship of Mr. Chetan, until his own burdensome secret is uncovered with heart breaking consequences."--Publisher description.

The ending to this book was superb. I was deeply invested in the characters and their futures. I did feel like it dragged on leading up to the end however. The book takes place in Trinidad. As a result, the author writes in Trinidadian Creole English. This was great in keeping the tone, atmosphere and authenticity of the story, however made the book slightly difficult to read at times

Kaitlyn Wendler

Jessica Bateson

Beautifully descriptive and extremely moving

Pam Sartain

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud is set on Trinidad and New York.  We follow Betty, her son Solo, and Mr Chetan, who is their lodger.  

The three of them make a family unit, except Betty and Mr Chetan aren't together. This all works until secrets start to come out.

This is written in the way that they speak in Trinidad (as the author was born there, I'll believe that), so there are words that I've never come across before, but it does work at transporting you to somewhere completely different.  

I enjoyed this book, but I did find that it took a while to read.  The characters are believable and the setting is well written, with descriptions of food that all sound delicious!

Trigger Warning - this book deals with domestic abuse, homophobia, self harm (cutting), and suicide.

Love After Love was published on 2nd April 2020, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Ingrid Persaud on Twitter.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Faber and Faber.

Catalina Petre

This book broke my heart. The 3 main characters will stay with me for a long time.

*WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2020* AS SEEN ON BBC'S BETWEEN THE COVERS ONE OF STYLIST'S BEST NEW BOOKS FOR 2020 'A beautiful book. I adored it.' RICHARD OSMAN 'Full of wit and soul.' TRACY CHEVALIER 'Unforgettable' MARLON JAMES 'It made me ugly cry' JESSIE BURTON 'Glorious' RACHEL JOYCE 'Spellbinding' ANDRÉ ACIMAN Meet the Ramdin-Chetan family: forged through loneliness, broken by secrets, saved by love. Irrepressible Betty Ramdin, her shy son Solo and their marvellous lodger, Mr Chetan, form an unconventional household, happy in their differences, as they build a home together. Home: the place where your navel string is buried, keeping these three safe from an increasingly dangerous world. Happy and loving they are, until the night when a glass of rum, a heart to heart and a terrible truth explodes the family unit, driving them apart. Brave and brilliant, steeped in affection, Love After Love asks us to consider what happens at the very brink of human forgiveness, and offers hope to anyone who has loved and lost and has yet to find their way back.

Winner of the 2020 Costa First Novel Award

Francine Corry

Jennifer Forrester

Gelaine Trinidad

Meet the Ramadin-Chetan family: forged through loneliness, broken by secrets, saved by love.

Love After Love A Novel

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