Chains of Sand, is about a lot of things - identity, war, clashes of culture. But at the heart, there is love. Much of it forbidden. The most dramatic case is that of a young Jewish girl in Jerusalem who falls for a Muslim Arab. They know the obstacles, but cannot resist the hot pull of each other, and they dream that prejudices and laws and wars won't matter. If they can cross the divide, maybe others will too. Of course Life gets to them. It is in them and around them, and determined to keep them apart. But who can resist trying?
Jemma Wayne
And who can resist reading:
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
Obviously, obviously, these star-crossed lovers have to start the list. They are the paradigm of forbidden love. Two houses, both alike in dignity. What's in a name? Everything, everything's in the name! Everything's against them! And we so want love to win out. If it wasn't for that irresponsible Friar…
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
I mean, this entire list could have been Austen. Her lovers are almost always too rich or too poor, too posh or too classless, and sometimes too already taken. It's interesting to see how at that time, class was the big obstacle. In Pride and Prejudice, I love that it is overcome, with some excellent heartbreak and feistiness along the way.
Flowers in the Attic - V. C. Andrews
I read this as a young teen - which was probably hugely inappropriate. The book has everything - secrets, murder - but the scene I'll never forget is that of incest between siblings Cathy and Chris. They've been imprisoned for years, abused, poisoned, they have only each other, we understand, we understand - but still….
The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
Might as well stick with the incest theme! Again two children who, after their parents die, take on the roles of mother and father for their younger siblings. Sexual tensions rise, and in true McEwan style, things get darker and darker until the unthinkable happens. Nobody could write this like McEwan. Can't-look-away writing.
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Trust time travelling to get in the way of love! When Clare first meets Henry, she is a child. But later they are contemporaries, and married. I love that sometimes their relationship is right, and sometimes it's wrong. Ambiguity everywhere. Such a good book - but do not read without tissues!
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
I love the subtlety of Lahiri's writing here. American-Bengali Gogol's first real love is Maxine - white, challenging, not Bengali. Not allowed. He later marries a Bengali girl who seems perfect, but in the end it is she who lets him down. I love how Lahiri shines a light on fractured identity, and keeps us, too, not knowing who to root for.
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Is it forbidden love if it's not reciprocated? Humbert was definitely in love with Lolita, and the brilliance of Nabokov's characterisation is that we feel for him. We actually feel for somebody who is, in essence, a paedophile. The writing is humorous and tragic all at once. It makes you think, and feel, and sticks firmly in the mind.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
It's hard to talk about why this is so brilliant without dropping a total spoiler. But it is an absolutely gripping exploration of loving somebody who is 'other'. Not just different, or frowned upon, but from a separate, forbidden world. This book made me totally reassess my views on a big issue.
The Innocents - Francesca Segal
Segal transports Edith Wharton's story to modern day North London, and the internal torture of Adam, a good, Jewish boy battling between his wish to be true to his fiancé, childhood sweetheart Rachel, and his desire for her provocative, beautiful cousin Ellie. Ellie is forbidden only because of Adam's own choices, and I love the way Segal asks the question of 'have I made the right choice', and never really answers, because who can?
The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Anderson
I've been re-reading this recently to my daughter: First, it's a lot darker than Disney let on! Second, I've switched sides. I used to root for Ariel's fight for independence, for forbidden love. Now, I understand why my dad always thought this was a horror story. A child leaves her parents and is gone forever! Boo hoo.. boo hoo… Can't she marry her prince and stay under the sea?
Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne is out now in paperback (Legend Press, £9.99)