What is it like to give up everything you have ever known? To stake everything on marriage to someone you've met only through letters? What is it like to stake everything on a relationship based only on letters? Laila is desperate to escape life in the longhouse in her Malaysian village. Desperate enough to travel alone to Australia to marry Jim, a fruit-picker living in Renmark, South Australia. Jim hasn't had much luck with women — they've always given him a hard time. He pins his hopes on Laila changing all that. Marital bliss, a new life. But when Laila and Jim finally meet, they each discover the reality of the other, and things don't go as planned. Handpicked is a subtle and sensitive exploration of the world of the mail-order bride. It is also a compelling and finely observed account of expectations and consequences, words and actions, truth and love.
