“With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.” – Oscar Wilde

 If I didn’t know better, I’d think Dorian Gray’s mastermind got an advanced reader copy of Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows over 200 years ago. Surely, Wilde would have been pleased: sexuality, drama, and mysterious deaths?!!?

Set in present-day London, Balli Kaur Jaswal puts a unique spin on the popular East-meets-West novel. Nikki left her parent’s home in the Indian neighborhood of Southall for modern city life. The big city proved rough after Nikki dropped out of law school and lost some of her shifts at the bar. Money was tight. On top of it all, her older sister agreed to participate in the Indian tradition of arranged marriage. Nikki felt wholly devastated. After reluctantly agreeing to post her sister’s profile on the marriage board at a large Sikh church, Nikki comes across a Help Wanted ad to teach creative writing to women from the congregation. Nikki is passionate about storytelling and empowering women, so this job seems to be the perfect fit.

During the first class, Nikki’s shocked to find she’s been duped into teaching English to Sikh widows. The widows received a special surprise on Day One when they stumbled upon a book of erotic stories Nikki purchased (as a joke) for her marriage-seeking sister. Taking their lead from literature (and counter to their Sikh culture), the women begin to record their fantasies—ones they’ve kept close to the chest (so to speak) for too long.  

 As the women grow closer through their stories, more is shared beyond salacious fantasies and vegetable descriptors (I kid you not) of the perceived prudent widows. The class eventually realizes that there’s more than meets the eye to a local woman’s suicide. (Move over Alexander McCall Smith, there’s a new No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency!)  The widows underestimate everything that comes with exposing controversial details to a conservative church community.

If you read Jaswal’s book title and balked a bit, I wouldn’t be surprised.  You might be shocked to learn that my 56-year-old mother recommended the book to me. Rarely have I read a book that has made me consistently laugh and gasp throughout its entirety. It’s good for the gut. Deborah Maggoch, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, had this to say: “I loved this novel—it’s so big-hearted and earthy and funny. Best of all, it turns many preconceptions upside down, and opens up a world that so many of us have only glimpsed. A rattlingly good story.”

P.S. Be warned, there is some sexual content, and some of the descriptions are a bit graphic. But I never felt as though the sexuality took away from the story’s message about stereotypes and suppression. As an added bonus, it may just help you answer the age-old question on everyone’s mind: is it similar to an eggplant or cucumber? #TeamEggplant

Guest Post by Michelle