The Retreat by Zara Raheem
What's It About?
In Zara Raheem’s newest novel we meet Nadia Abbasi — whose attempts to save her marriage create unexpected complications — and follow her as she navigates the twists and turns of love.Ladies Home Journal, which began in 1883, launched a hugely popular trademarked advice column in 1952 called “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” that ran until the magazine’s demise in 2016. This is exactly the burning question family and friends are asking about protagonist Nadia Abbasi’s marriage in The Retreat (William Morrow). It is author Zara Raheem’s charming follow-up to her acclaimed award-winning debut novel The Marriage Clock. This romantic comedy/drama may well be one of the biggest hits of the summer.
Traditional, Comfortable Marriage Takes a Turn
Nadia and Aman are grandchildren of the massive diaspora that took place after India’s Independence and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Like many persecuted Indians of Muslim faith, their immediate family fled to safety during that turbulent time, settling in the San Francisco Bay Area and working diligently to achieve their remarkable success. Aman’s parents, both physicians, married for 40 years, reside in the gated community of Atherton, one of the richest zip codes in California, long a favorite of old money and Silicon Valley executives.
Model handsome Aman is an intervention cardiologist who met Nadia in undergraduate school at UC Berkeley. She is an optometrist with her own thriving practice. Her family was atypical of the Islamic community in that her father walked out on her mother when Nadia was 5 and her sister Zeba was 7. It was a struggle for their mother to pay the bills. When Aman asked to marry Nadia, it came as no surprise his parents weren’t keen on the unequal match. Curiously, and without stating a reason, Nadia’s mom was outspokenly reluctant to approve the match, apparently sensing he was not right for her daughter.
They married a decade earlier in a traditional Muslim Indian Nikah ceremony. This includes a written binding contract between groom and bride, formally signed before witnesses, to wed now, forever and even for subsequent lifetimes. Divorce after a Nikah solemnized wedding would be contrary to Islamic law.
Nadia and Aman are ostensibly a perfectly matched, modern, upwardly mobile couple. They owned a classic 1930’s Tudor-style home in a beautiful well-established neighborhood. Their largest storage closet was turned into a darkroom to accommodate Aman’s passion for his hobby: photography. The house and yard provided adequate room for entertaining.
Their desire to have children remains a source of disappointment and upset for both, and particularly difficult for Nadia to bear after several miscarriages and three failed IVF attempts. The meticulously polished veneer of happiness was beginning to show cracks.
Nadia’s recent 35th birthday gift was the latest model Roomba, straight from the Amazon box. The previous year it had been a deluxe food processor. Aman is not one given to romantic gestures. What has become harder to bear is the increasing frequency of Aman’s later-than-usual nights, last-minute cancellations of dinners and dates with friends, forgetfulness, out-of-town conferences and occasional unexpected overnight absences. He has become appreciably less affectionate and distant as well as absent.
As cardiologists work long and unpredictable hours with many emergencies occurring after midnight, Nadia didn’t question his schedule. Infidelity was never a concern until she fished some discarded negatives from the wastebasket in the darkroom and had them printed in a lab. They strongly hinted he was celebrating a third anniversary with a mysterious person he called “L”.
Investigating a Husband’s Infidelity
Sisterhood is indeed powerful and Nadia turns for advice from her best friends: her office manager and her older sister Zeba. Since the death of their mother from cancer a year earlier, Nadia had grown distant from her sister. Both girls foolishly believed their mother preferred the other. Additionally, Nadia was envious of her sister’s relaxed and happy marriage with Shoaib and their two boisterous young sons.
Zeba was a devout Muslim housewife who wore a hijab in public, observed a halal diet and homeschooled the little boys. Shoaib enjoyed his job as an economics instructor in a community college, but their modest ranch-style home and lifestyle could not compare to Nadia and Aman’s more ostentatious one. They shared responsibility for their sons’ upbringing, hosted backyard barbecues with friends and in general radiated contentment.
When Nadia by chance learned from a patient that her husband was a regular participant at the Purple Clover Yoga Studio, her inner Nancy Drew kicked into high gear as she and Zeba investigated the outfit posing as prospective students. The instructors, particularly Rick and golden girl Lena, were upbeat and welcoming. It seemed like such an obvious cliché that Aman had fallen for a younger, fitter, Barbie-type yoga instructor!
Heartsick, Nadia left messages for Aman blatantly accusing him of being unfaithful and temporarily moved into her sister’s home. To further their investigations, Zeba persuaded Nadia to sign up for a 3-day weekend mountain retreat a few hours down the coast from the Bay Area. It offered intensive yoga training, hikes, meditation and a cleansing diet of gourmet vegan food. The latter would be the most difficult for Nadia who preferred to indulge in pop tarts, fast food, chocolate and strong coffee. It also provided her a chance to observe and become acquainted with Lena or “L”, the presumed girlfriend/other woman Aman had been seeing regularly.
To provide her pep talks and support as well as to prevent her from backing out at the last minute, Zeba drove her baby sister to the weekend getaway. Imagine Nadia’s horror when she discovers she will be sharing accommodations with the suspected paramour Lena. The situation worsens when it becomes evident Lena is suffering from morning sickness. This beautiful girl is apparently as sweet and considerate as she is lovely, making it oddly difficult for Nadia to despise her.
She then bonds with outgoing, friendly yoga instructor Rick who generously shared his coffee and stash of Snickers miniatures after observing her reject the vegan “delight” dessert offering featuring carob and avocado. Despite her lack of experience with yoga and reluctance to participate while on this spy mission, she does take part in the practices and hikes.
Comedic Cast of Retreat Attendees
The Retreat becomes truly hilarious with the introduction of the weekend attendees. Two of these secondary characters stood out as people you would most wish to avoid. Patricia, a veteran of three previous retreats and a smug self-professed yoga “expert,” singled Nadia out as a First-Timer, proceeding to bombard her with unsolicited advice and attempting to supplant the instructors.
Then there’s Brandon, who after announcing to the small gathering he prefers to spend all his time traveling to practice yoga and self-care, unintentionally entertains the reader with his inane and inappropriate remarks. Before being introduced, he greets Nadia with a heartfelt “Namaste” and proceeds to address her in halting Hindi without ascertaining she is Muslim not Hindu, San Francisco born, and if she could speak her grandparents’ language it would have been Urdu.
He continues to unintentionally offend her with the additional assumption she is a yoga expert, questioning her for the names of her poses when she is simply stretching as she desperately tries to keep up with the experienced students. However, Nadia remains detached, polite and far more concerned with the lack of cellphone coverage.
The Retreat comes to a surprising and satisfying conclusion when Zeba’s Jetta motors into view with a wild-eyed Aman in the passenger seat. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable, unpredictable and skillfully written novel certain to attract new readers for the mega-talented Zara Raheem, who juggles her own fiction writing with teaching English and creative writing at a Southern California university. The Retreat would be a terrific, upbeat movie. Fans of Emily Henry, Sophie Kinsella, Elin Hilderbrand and Sonali Dev, among other clever romantic comedy writers, should embrace this treat
About Zara Raheem:
Zara Raheem received her MFA from California State University, Long Beach. She is the recipient of the James I. Murashige Jr. Memorial award in fiction and was selected as one of 2019’s Harriet Williams Emerging Writers. Her debut novel The Marriage Clock was named a “must-read book of the summer” by Cosmopolitan, POPSUGAR, Bustle, Book Riot, among others, and has been translated into Italian and Portuguese. She is currently working on a short story collection that centers around the South Asian diaspora, the Muslim-American experience, and the struggles and hardships faced by first and second-generation immigrants. She resides in Southern California where she teaches English and creative writing.
