by Balli Kaur Jaswal
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Published: 2017
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Historical, Romance, Women's Fiction, London, Indian culture
Hardback: 304
Rating: 5
First sentence(s):
Why did Mindi want an arranged marriage?
Every woman has a secret life . . .
Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.
Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.
As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s "moral police." But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.
My two-bits:
Despite the title, this story is a bit more serious with a slightly dark edge.
Learning about the culture and Indian side of London was interesting. The erotic stories were entertaining. And, the overall romance layer pulled everything together nicely.
* part of Reese Witherspoon's Book Club (here)
* part of World Reads challenge - India (here)
