The stories are meant to open up other aspects of the community such as arranged marriages and the impact of honour - but it just doesn't seem to connect that well. The honour crime story was far more interesting and I wish there was more focus on that side instead of turning it in to a Gurinder Chadha type of novel. While it's quite a novelty and funny at the beginning, the stories become repetitive and it becomes a little boring.

It opens up a world of sensuous pleasure for the women, who are normally quite conservative about such topics. A group of old Punjabi women attend an English language class run by a British Asian young woman who mistakenly brings in an erotic book one day. I wasn't sure what to expect with this bizarrely named novel, and I was slightly worried it would be some Karma Sutra style book but it was nothing of the kind. But as they begin to open up to each other about womanhood, sexuality and the dark secrets within the community, Nikki realises that the illicit nature of the class may place them all in danger.Įast meets West and tradition clashes with modernity in a thought-provoking cross-cultural novel that might make you look again at the women in your life. Yet to her surprise, the white dupatta of the widow hides more than just their modesty - these are women who have spent their lives in the shadows of fathers, brothers and husbands, being dutiful, raising children and going to temple, but whose inner lives are as rich and fruitful as their untold stories. When Nikki takes a creative writing job at her local temple, with visions of emancipating the women of the community she left behind as a self-important teenager, she's shocked to discover a group of barely literate women who have no interest in her ideals.

Hilarious and heartwarming, an East-meets-West novel for fans of The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul.

Punjabi widows