After Love is a 2020 British drama film written and directed by Aleem Khan in his feature-length directorial debut. The film stars Joanna Scanlan as widow Mary Hussain discovering her husband's secret family after he unexpectedly dies

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK AWARD •“A wonder . . . [This book] teems with real, Trinidadian life.”—Claire Adam, award-winning author of Golden Child Solo is anti-social and an independent thinker. Later on in the book he moves in with his uncle, who lives in The States and learns some life lessons. Mary Hussain ( Joanna Scanlan) and her husband Ahmed (Nasser Memarzia) return home one night only for Ahmed to unexpectedly die. After looking through Ahmed's wallet some time after his funeral, she notices a picture of a woman named Genevieve ( Nathalie Richard) whom she has never heard of before. Probing further, she looks at Ahmed's phone and sees multiple text messages he sent to the same woman, with the two of them suggestively discussing meeting up with each other.

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In vibrant, addictive Trinidadian prose, Love After Love questions who and how we love, the obligations of family, and the consequences of choices made in desperation. Later, Genevieve, Solomon, and Mary happen to visit Ahmed's grave at the same time (and, in turn, Ahmed's and Mary's son's grave, who's buried next to his father). The three of them then return to Mary's house. Genevieve tells Mary that she was always jealous that Ahmed wouldn't ever leave Mary for her, but was fine with sharing as she believed she had the better half of Ahmed. Shortly after Genevieve leaves the room, Mary hears one of the cassette tapes that Ahmed made for her and walks downstairs to see Genevieve and Solomon listening to it. Solomon initially gives the tape to Mary, but she allows him to keep it instead. The two tearfully embrace. In the final scene, the three of them visit the White Cliffs of Dover and look out at the English Channel. I did not think the second half of the book was as strong as the first half. I realize a setup is needed for things to come near the end but it did seem to drag on for a bit. There is substance to the second half, but I wish I could have better maintained my interest level.

After Love is a very good book, well written, sympathetic, and insightful. It wears its sophisticated theory lightly, making it both accessible and rewarding to read as much as for the picture of contemporary Cuba it paints as for the more general insights it provides into how people negotiate the contradictions life throws at them.” — Mark Graham, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Noelle Stout presents a rich ethnographic description of queer life in post-Soviet Cuba, with an emphasis on the ways in which Cuba’s large-scale changes have transformed intimacy." — Heidi Harkonen, Suomen Antropologi i actually desperately want a sequel but focusing on another character ???? preferably esen ??? i’m just very intrigued by that whole set up in this book i just !! wish it was expanded more

Love After Love was, for me, a rather more conventional in form and language, albeit one with an unconventional relationship at its core. Betty and Chetan both individually consider whether it could become more, but there's a good reason why it can't/won't. One night, with the help of a bottle of rum, they explore the question once and for all...and, no. It wouldn’t be the first time I took a six for a nine. (Betty) One last thing that I was really disappointed with was a transphobic comment made by Poppy which was left uncriticized. Rosser, Michael (22 September 2020). "Aleem Khan's 'After Love' secures UK and Ireland deal". Screen International . Retrieved 24 March 2023.

There was something about this emotional crossover that had always stayed with me,” he adds. “The question of what is left of yourself when you change yourself and revolve so much around someone else. When that person leaves or dies, how do we begin to recalibrate and find our sense of self again?” Making this film allowed my dormant trauma to find an outlet and purpose Aleem Khan I must admit, I have never read a novel with any LGBTQ+ characters or relationships before, so I do not have anything to compare this novel to, except that I felt so much heartache and love for these characters, just as much as all the other love stories I have read before, so I think it is absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be looking to read more from Tanya! But that didn’t affect my liking of the story so much, thankfully. I was still fully invested throughout and desperately hoping that the foretold ending would actually somehow be subverted.

Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba

When I say that I love you, Ash, I don’t meant that I love in the way that I love Basquiat or oat milk lattes, I mean that I love you. All that you are and all that you will be and I can’t wait to find out who that person is.” Persaud excavates a rich mine of feeling here without dissolving into soap opera parody despite wild emotional climaxes. To distill this plot into its individual beats you could be excused for dismissing it as a juicy telenovela but there is so much here at its heart. There is the struggle against loneliness, bigotry, prejudice and our past mistakes while forging a path forward against it all. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. Ritman, Alex (5 December 2021). "British Independent Film Awards: Aleem Khan's 'After Love' Rules With 6 Wins, Including Best Film". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 6 December 2021. The novel switches between three narrative voices and opens with Betty recalling the last days of her marriage to Sunil, initially charming but latterly an abusive drunk. Solo is their (then) young son.

But, the inevitable must come. Ash must die and our minds must fill with questions about what it means for her and Poppy, how Ash’s family coped, what everyone is doing now. Only some of those questions get answered, which is a little disappointing given how much I grew to love the other side characters. Nevertheless, the second section of Afterlove brings in the fantasy element of reapers, who collect souls of the recently deceased and bring them to Charon’s boat to continue their journey. The supernatural side of things with the reapers was very clever, something I haven’t read before, and without going into too much detail as it would spoil it, there a certain aspects of being a reaper that create an edge of danger and uncertainty for Ash. The ending was very well established, and almost the perfect ending in my eyes. Mr. Chetan is a closet gay man who also is victimised by society. Eventually he does come out (not a big spoiler) and tries to connect with a former lover.

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Solo, whose voices joins the narrative chorus, ostensibly for a holiday to visit his uncle, Sunil's brother, but he actually intends to stay and never return to Trinidad or see his mother ever again. The novel then follows Solo's struggles in New York, where he resorts to cutting, Mr Chetan's difficulties in a strongly homophobic society, and Betty as the one who cares for them both while hoping she may find love.