OBSERVER: The Sex Lives of Married Women
Journalist Saman Shad had such a success with her debut novel The Matchmaker, she has taken up her pen again to write about the next chapter of women’s life.
Her new novel, The Sex Lives of Married Women, examines what love looks like after 10 years with a partner, and when women decide that being able to have it all is a myth.
That’s when the importance of our female friends who are outside that marriage comes into play, so Shad introduces us to three women who share their struggles.
Meena has returned from London to Sydney with her partner Owen and baby Sasha, and she’s feeling neglected by Owen. Then there is Sophie, a high flyer who has a whirlwind romance with Todd and sacrifices her own career for marriage and motherhood and finds it’s not all she had hoped it would be.
Rani is an international student who is feeling lonely as she raises her son with an increasingly absent husband.
The three women form a tight bond o friendship through coffee mornings, cocktails and confessions as they navigate a life that is different from what they imagined it would be.
Shad also looks at the influence of cultural backgrounds and how immigrant women in the west negotiate the path they tread between cultures, as well as the issues involved in deciding whether to stay in a marriage or leave it.
At the base of all this discussion is the strength that women find in true female friendship as a support for life’s transitions.
Shad pulls no punches in her subject matter, and feels it’s important that issues are aired.
“I wrote this book to not only discuss topics that seem taboo – female pleasure and sexuality – but also to highlight the importance of friendships in seeing us through the tough times,” she explains.
The Sex Lives of Married Women is published by Penguin Random House and out now.
Julie Houghton