'Late Bloomers' is a novel about arranged marriage, divorce and dating later in life

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dating can be difficult and confusing at any age – but especially after the end of a 36-year arranged marriage. The characters of Deepa Varadarajan's debut novel, Late Bloomers, are experiencing that second chance firsthand. Parents Suresh and Lata have just split and are learning to navigate dating online and IRL; their kids are fielding relationship troubles of their own. In today's episode, the author talks to NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer about what it means to find love later in life, and how writing fiction provided her with her own kind of fresh start.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody, it's Tinbidairmius, and this is NPR's Book of the Day. Okay, so you may not
0:07.9	need me to tell you that dating is hard, but it is, perhaps even more so as a middle-aged person
0:14.1	who recently ended a 36-year arranged marriage. But that's the situation at the heart of Deepa
0:19.9	Varadarajan's debut novel, Late Blooms.
0:23.1	The book explores what it means to start over, and the humor, pain, and joy that often comes
0:28.5	with it. Here, Deepa discusses the novel with NPR, Sasha Pfeiffer. And while the book is fiction,
0:35.2	the themes of arranged marriage and starting over are very personal for the author.
0:40.2	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:45.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
0:51.4	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
0:54.9	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:58.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:04.5	Is it ever too late to start over? And if it's not, how does a person do that?
1:10.4	Those are the questions at the heart of
1:12.0	Deepa Varadarajan's debut novel, Late Bloomers. It's the story of the Rahman family, daughter Priya,
1:18.2	son Nikesh, and parents Sarash and Lata, who've just divorced after 36 years of an arranged
1:24.7	marriage. So Latha, she has a job outside the home for the first time. She's
1:31.0	working at a university library, and she loves it. And a professor there asks her out. And it's a very
1:38.0	new and nerve-wracking experience for her. Lata is nervous about starting a new relationship.
1:43.3	Seresh is lonely and uses online dating
1:45.9	to try to find a wife. When he does it, he starts realizing, well, people are lying in their
1:51.1	profiles. And the funny thing is, you know, he is too, but when he does it, he doesn't think of it
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.