(Un)arranged Marriage.

(UN)ARRANGED MARRIAGE. Bali Rai. 2001/ 2003. Read by Kish Sharma. 6 tapes. 7.5 hrs. ISIS Audio. 0-7531-1876-9. $54.95. Vinyl; plot, reader, author notes. JS

"No way!" Thirteen-year-old Manny is having none of his father's plan, which is to marry him off at age 17 to a girl Manny has never met. Manny's got other priorities, most of which take him out of the house. That's not surprising, since the other members of his family, Punjabis living in Leicester, England, are an unattractive lot. Manny tries to sabotage the arranged marriage by getting a bad reputation, shoplifting and generally acting out, but it doesn't work. His parents take him off to India for a summer and leave him there without a passport, a prisoner of his relatives. How he resolves this situation keeps us listening, even though it's hard to feel sympathy for his whiny and self-centered personality.

There are two layers of cross-cultural material here to intrigue American audiences. One is the world of working-class British youth; the other is the values and concerns of Indian immigrants to Britain. Second-generation Indian Americans may recognize some of the cultural and family conflicts described. Reader Sharma does the accents well and moves the story along briskly. Author Rai lives in Leicester, and paints a convincing portrait of life in that city. Winner of The Stockport Children's Book Award, The Angus Children's Books Award and The Leicester Children's Book Award, this provides a new wrinkle to the normal coming-of-age story. Betsy Woodman, Andover, NH

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.