Payback
Halima has her whole life to look forward to. Brought up in a Pakistani village and now settled in London with her family, her horizons are widening all the time. She has started university and she has met a Muslim boy she really likes.
And then she discovers her father’s plan – to marry her to the son of a distant relation in Pakistan who once did him a favour. Halima is to be the repayment of a debt, and it’s payback time.
With the help of friends, Halima goes into hiding to avoid a marriage she cannot accept, but there are people determined to find her …
...gives a welcome and often gripping airing to this topical issue, examining concepts of family honour, religion, love and the place of women in society in an accessible way.
Books for Keeps
A powerful, moving read.
The Irish Examiner
Payback tells the story of a first-generation immigrant from Pakistan doing well at university but faced by an arranged marriage to a man she abhors. Her narrow escape, and the help she gets from the government's Forced Marriage Unit, is vividly told. Based on a true account, this is contemporary novel-writing at its most relevant.
The Independent
Payback has been shortlisted for the Lincolnshire Young People’s Book Award 2010/11.
ISBN 9781845079352
(Frances Lincoln)