Morning Book Group: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Join the library's Morning Book Group in May as we talk about Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.
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.
This book is available to borrow from the library. Physical copies will be available at the circulation desk by the previous book club meeting, January 8. Digital ebooks and audiobooks will be available via Libby. Visit this link for more information on how to get started with a digital copy.
Morning Book Group meets the second Thursday of the month in the library Board Room.
Email sbplprograms@southburlingtonvt.gov or call 802-846-4140 if you have questions, to get the Zoom link, or would like to be added to the email list for this group.
