Payback Review

Title: Payback

Author: Rosemary Hayes

Release Date: 18^th June 2009

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Halima has her whole life to look forward to. Brought up in a Pakistani village and now settled in London with her family, her horizions are widening all the time. She is starting university in London and she has met a Muslim boy she really likes.

And then she discover's 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.

Halima thinks she will never get the chance to travel to England but when her father decides to take the entire family back to the UK, she is overwhelmed. Although she has to learn to integrate into a new culture, Halima sees this as an opportunity to get a good education. She even finds herself falling for a boy, Mahmood, a Muslim boy so perfect that her parents can’t possibly object to them having a relationship.

However, everything starts to fall apart when Halima finds out her father has already arranged her marriage in Pakistan and there’s nothing she can do about it. Halima takes matters into her own hands with the support of her friend, Kate. But her family will not accept her decision and Halima finds herself in a difficult and dangerous situation.

This book is based on a true story and shows how arranged marriages can occur in the UK. Halima’s sister, Asma, has a happy arranged marriage and so the book is far from critical, exploring the different approaches to arranged marriages.

Halima’s family reveal the difficulties of turning your back on your culture. Halima’s brother suffers rejection from his family, Halima’s mother struggles to integrate into a culture completely different from her own and Halima realises she has other options.

I emotionally engaged with Halima all the way through the story because she is such a believable character struggling to deal with lots of difficult issues.  The majority of the book is written from Halima’s point of view although there are chapters which are written from the point of view of some of the other characters which gives the tale added depth. At times it is distressing because Halima suffers so much and towards the end of the book it is unclear what has happened to her.

Overall, the book deals with a real life story in a sensitive way as well as being engaging and exciting. I was so relieved that the book had a happy ending and felt that Halima and Mahmood deserved it! I really enjoyed the story as well as finding it important to my understanding of different cultures.

5/5 Brilliant story and culturally interesting!