“The pages didn’t really matter. The women could retell them. There were recordings. What Nikki wanted to do was talk to Kulwinder. Explain how these stories came about. Compel her to see that these women who had started one quiet rebellion could come together to fight a bigger injustice.” – Balli Kaur Jaswal, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

I have to confess right from the start that this novel really surprised me. Based on what I had heard, I was expecting something light and fun and while it definitely is fun and funny, it also digs into some pretty weighty issues. Set in the Punjabi community in Southall, a part of London, the main character, Nikki, accepts a job teaching Punjabi widows to read and write. Or at least, that is what she is told to do by her conservative boss, Kulwinder. The widows have other ideas. Rather than learning to read and write, they want to tell stories … erotic stories. (Like the kind of erotic stories that will make you blush if you are reading them in public.) What I hadn’t realized before reading this book is that in the Sikh community, if a man dies, his widow is never supposed to remarry. For the women in the writing group, the erotic stories were a way of recapturing a part of their lives that was gone forever, or of attempting to live out fantasies that their marriages had never provided.

The story reveals a lot of the ways the inhabitants of Southall are supported and constricted by their community. Nikki is the daughter of Indian immigrants to England. She is caught between her parents’ culture and that of the London she grew up in. She wants to be a “modern” girl, living apart from her parents, avoiding arranged marriage and choosing a career for herself, but after quitting law school and the death of her father, Nikki is adrift. She sees teaching the writing class as a way to make a difference for the women in her community being oppressed by traditional gender roles. The way the story unfolds juxtaposes notions of modern and traditional, East and West, and the roles of women and men in the community. Jaswal does an excellent job of creating women who feel real – they are kind and generous and backbiting and petty – and as a result, the reader greatly empathizes with their problems. The roles duty and honour play in the Sikh community are closely examined as they are often used to hold the community together and hide its sins. Far from being just chick-lit or a rom com,  Jaswal uses the erotic story-writing group as a means of exploring so much about Southall’s Punjabi community in a way that is both fond and critical. One thing that dawned on  me only after I read the novel is despite their circumstances, every single female character in this novel is strong. The novel also includes a subplot surrounding the mysterious death of Kulwinder’s daughter that keeps you turning the pages. There is a little bit of everything for readers here: romance, mystery, family drama and coming-of-age.

This is an excellent novel. I love books that allow you a glimpse into the lives of people in a way your real life would never let you experience and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows definitely ticks that box. Jaswal surrounds all the issues she confronts in the book with great storytelling. It’s funny and thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting so I guess what I’m saying is, you really should read it. If you do, let me know what you think. Until next time, happy reading!