By Selma Carvalho

Humour is notoriously difficult to render, isn’t it? So, it really is nice to hear that it works in the book. Indeed, I wanted there to be an obvious satirical element in the story and the suitors provide the perfect opportunity to demonstrate some real and very wild things one has heard of, or seen, in society. While I wanted readers to have a laugh at these figures (and maybe at themselves), I also hoped to point out the ludicrousness of what the characters subject themselves and others to. This is why the second half of the book brings back some of the occurrences from the first half, but in less funny ways.