Bitter Sweet Symphony - Softcover

Like her first novel, Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet, Shyama Perera's Bitter Sweet Symphony is a heady mix of comedy, tragedy and pop music: a symphony of, and to, love and marriage, sex and the comforts of bourgeois divorce. On the face of it, Perera's subject is troubling enough: the unexpected breakdown of an established marriage and family: "This morning, my adored husband of 10 years, told me he was in love with someone else. Then he went, leaving me with our two small children aged seven and three."

Following Buster's departure, Nina--wife, mother, soon-to-be-divorcee--is thrown back on the resources of family, friends and a new-found self who veers between the delights of hedonism and the consolations of anger at a man who can, it seems, simply walk away from wife, home and children: "The lesson is learned. Buster has life choices. We don't. I don't." That anger runs through the book, its unflinching exposé of the sexual politics of love, responsibility and commitment. But anger never gets the better of the drive to life that turns Nina into a heroine for the comfortable classes of a comfortable London. At the same time as she can "cry for women everywhere because, no matter what the buck always stops with us", Nina is also fighting for her right to party: "If all ex-wives got pissed and danced, the world would be a brighter place." A readable, and very contemporary, morality tale about winning through to the right side of friendship, love and money, Bitter Sweet Symphony ends with an upbeat message to its readers: "Love like you've never been hurt/Dance like nobody's watching." --Vicky Lebeau

Needle sharp, very original and a bit wicked (Mirror)

'A feisty variation on the lone and jilted theme, Shyama Perera's lament for lost love actually cheers you up' She, Must-read of the Month

'The gut-wrenching shock, the humiliation and the terror of facing life alone are described with strength, wit and clarity. So is regeneration: the powerful consolation of friends and the revelation that life goes on' Marie-Claire, Book of the Month

Extremely readable . . . Written in an appealingly restrained, cool manner (The Times)

'Extremely readable . . . Written in an appealingly restrained, cool manner' The Times

The gut-wrenching shock, the humiliation and the terror of facing life alone are described with strength, wit and clarity. So is regeneration: the powerful consolation of friends and the revelation that life goes on (Marie Claire, Book of the Month)

'Needle sharp, very original and a bit wicked' - Mirror

A feisty variation on the lone and jilted theme, Shyama Perera's lament for lost love actually cheers you up (She, Must-read of the month)

Funny and uplifting (Shine)

'Very much a novel of sisterhood in the most positive way' Clare Naylor, Literary Review