A sweeping international romance and deeply rooted love story told by two world-weary adults who are still kids at heart
An epistolary novel that follows two star-crossed lovers across continents and decades, Isobel de Border’s Bella & Rami captures the intensity of first love and the still-hot embers of lifelong passion decades later.
When Bella and Rami meet in India in 1980, she is an Australian exchange student. Their attraction is nearly immediate and life-changing for both of them. The time they spend together feels hedonistic and lush, which makes Bella’s return home feel even sadder. Border draws a sharp contrast, making India feel alive and vibrant, and Australia feel cold and constrained for Bella.
The pair keep up a strong written correspondence while Bella secures funding, enrolls in college, and moves in with her friend Mary. A few years later, Bella returns to visit Rami in India with Mary in tow, which sparks the conflagration that ultimately burns down Bella’s life as she knew it.
Still, Bella and Rami are nothing if not resilient. Like the moon and the sun, they keep similar orbits that periodically overlap in an eclipse that shuts out the rest of the world. Decades on, when their paths cross again, there may be a chance to write a new chapter in their love story, if they’re strong enough to take it.
Isobel de Border’s work reads like Bella’s diary even when it’s not in letter form. The depth of detail immerses us in Bella’s world from the very beginning. Bella’s perspective has an edge and wantonness that conveys just how intense her feelings for Rami are. While small asides here and there suggest there is a lot we don’t know about Bella’s home life, we know these are things that weigh heavily on her relationship with Rami. Over time, de Border reveals more and more, with Bella and Rami’s ongoing correspondence from afar becoming the ultimate source of insight. It reveals the strength of their love and the true nature of the obstacles that come between them.
Bella and Rami’s eventual shift from posted letters to email and even WhatsApp messages keeps their story feeling fresh and modern. We feel wistful for them pining away for each other as young adults, we sigh at every miscommunication over the years, and we hope that life is good to them both at the end of every chapter. This is a couple you want to see make it. Seeing first-hand through their letters, poems, and phone calls how they grow in wisdom and personal insight while never losing that bond of pure love is magical.
While there is a significant tangent, such as the extensive effort Bella has to put into aiding her father, and some occasional intimate scenes that feel forced, overall, de Border’s novel moves at a steady pace and focuses solely on reaching its surprising resolution. Book clubs will find much to discuss with Bella & Rami, as will fans of women’s fiction. When it comes to being in love, no one does it better than young people, and people who used to be young.
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