(Un)arranged Marriage Award-winning author/illustrator

“Harry and Ranjit were waiting for me – waiting to take me to Derby, to a wedding. My wedding. A wedding that I hadn’t asked for, that I didn’t want. To a girl who I didn’t know… If they had bothered to open their eyes, they would have seen me: seventeen, angry, upset but determined – determined to do my own thing, to choose my own path in life…” Manny wants to be a footballer. Or a pop star. Or a bestselling author. He doesn’t want to get married. But does he have a choice? Set partly in the UK and partly in the Punjab region of India, this is a bitingly perceptive look at a young man’s fight to free himself from family expectations and dance to his own tune.

• Bali Rai’s powerful classic about choosing your own destiny

• Brilliantly captures the clash of modern and traditional values

• Winner of the Angus Award and the Leicester Book of the Year

• Bali Rai’s many books include Rani and Sukh and The Last Taboo