Icon falls for Choksi's debut on love across faith and tradition

Icon has acquired The Newlyweds by Mansi Choksi, a "deeply personal, intimate" account of young couples in modern India who defy their families to be together, across faith, caste and tradition.  

Senior commissioning editor Clare Bullock obtained UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding South Asia, from Emma Smith at the Wylie Agency.

The Newlyweds tells the story of a lesbian couple who are forced to flee for a chance at a life together, a Hindu woman and Muslim man who have to escape under cover of night from a violent mob, and a couple from different castes who know the risk they run by marrying. Icon will publish in September 2022.

"Mansi has that rare ability to tell a deeply personal, intimate story, and then pick up the thread to tell a wider narrative about society – in this case, the tension between ancient tradition and modern romance that has such an impact on the lives of young Indian people," Bullock said. "The Newlyweds will have a resonance for anyone who has ever taken risks in the pursuit of love, but particularly those from the Indian and South Asian diaspora, who may have not seen this story told before in quite this way; this might be the story of their parents, their young cousins, or could even be their own. 

"As Icon continues to grow our list, it is a real privilege to work with a writer of such talent; I believe this is a book that will become a future classic in the vein of Behind the Beautiful Forevers or Maximum City."

Choksi is a writer based in Dubai, UAE and Mumbai, India. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, New Yorker, National Geographic, Slate and Atlantic. The Newlyweds is her first book, and developed from a prize-winning essay which appeared in Harper’s.

"I’m deeply grateful that my first book gets to benefit from the careful attention of the extraordinary team at Icon Books," she said. "The Newlyweds tells the story of three young couples from villages across India but my hope is that readers everywhere can see themselves in these pages."