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The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters: A Novel
The author of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows follows her acclaimed America debut with this life-affirming, witty family drama-an Indian This Is Where I Leave You-about three Punjabi sisters embarking on a pilgrimage to their homeland to lay their mother to rest.
The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters-Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia-were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking ""good"" sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.
On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she's always been a dutiful daughter, and cannot, even now, refuse her mother's request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina's in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey, or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.
Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives-and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago-a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. ""I was curious about how different the trip would be if it were undertaken by women, who are vulnerable to different dangers in a male-dominated society,"" Balli Kaur Jaswal writes. ""I also wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India.""
Powerful, emotionally evocative, and wonderfully atmospheric, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a charming and thoughtful story that illuminates the bonds of family, sisterhood, and heritage that tether us despite our differences. Funny and heartbreaking, it is a reminder of the truly important things we must treasure in our lives.
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The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters: A Novel
The author of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows follows her acclaimed America debut with this life-affirming, witty family drama-an Indian This Is Where I Leave You-about three Punjabi sisters embarking on a pilgrimage to their homeland to lay their mother to rest.
The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters-Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia-were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking ""good"" sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.
On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she's always been a dutiful daughter, and cannot, even now, refuse her mother's request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina's in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey, or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.
Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives-and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago-a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. ""I was curious about how different the trip would be if it were undertaken by women, who are vulnerable to different dangers in a male-dominated society,"" Balli Kaur Jaswal writes. ""I also wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India.""
Powerful, emotionally evocative, and wonderfully atmospheric, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a charming and thoughtful story that illuminates the bonds of family, sisterhood, and heritage that tether us despite our differences. Funny and heartbreaking, it is a reminder of the truly important things we must treasure in our lives.
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The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters: A Novel
The author of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows follows her acclaimed America debut with this life-affirming, witty family drama-an Indian This Is Where I Leave You-about three Punjabi sisters embarking on a pilgrimage to their homeland to lay their mother to rest.
The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters-Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia-were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking ""good"" sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.
On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she's always been a dutiful daughter, and cannot, even now, refuse her mother's request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina's in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey, or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.
Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives-and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago-a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. ""I was curious about how different the trip would be if it were undertaken by women, who are vulnerable to different dangers in a male-dominated society,"" Balli Kaur Jaswal writes. ""I also wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India.""
Powerful, emotionally evocative, and wonderfully atmospheric, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a charming and thoughtful story that illuminates the bonds of family, sisterhood, and heritage that tether us despite our differences. Funny and heartbreaking, it is a reminder of the truly important things we must treasure in our lives.
A playful yet profound novel [that] moves easily from heartfelt to humorous…what may seem to be a singular story about first-generation London-bred Punjabi women evolves into a story universal to us all.” — USA Today
“An absolute delight…sad, joyful, and exciting all at the same time.” — Bookpage (starred review)
USA Today
A playful yet profound novel [that] moves easily from heartfelt to humorous…what may seem to be a singular story about first-generation London-bred Punjabi women evolves into a story universal to us all.
Bookpage (starred review)
An absolute delight…sad, joyful, and exciting all at the same time.
USA Today
A playful yet profound novel [that] moves easily from heartfelt to humorous…what may seem to be a singular story about first-generation London-bred Punjabi women evolves into a story universal to us all.
Bookpage (starred review)
An absolute delight…sad, joyful, and exciting all at the same time.
USA Today
A playful yet profound novel [that] moves easily from heartfelt to humorous…what may seem to be a singular story about first-generation London-bred Punjabi women evolves into a story universal to us all.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-03-04
In Jaswal's second novel (Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, 2017), three British-born Punjabi sisters must come together to carry out their mother's final wishes.
Matriarch Sita Shergill's cancer diagnosis has kept her from returning to Punjab to complete a pilgrimage of Sikh holy sites, so she writes a letter to her estranged daughters commanding them to fulfill the journey after her death to spread her ashes. Rajni, the eldest by more than a decade, organizes the trip. As the firstborn, she's the drill sergeant. Jezmeen, the middle child, is the rebellious drama queen, literally an actor, or at least an aspiring one, and Shirina, the baby of the family, is the peacekeeper who's so weary of this role that she's left the others behind in London and moved to Melbourne to be with her wealthy husband and his mother. The author draws out the distinctions among the sisters' personalities rather convincingly without making any of them too one-note. The women are complex but also wholly recognizable in their differing perspectives. Each of Sita's daughters has a trial she's holding back from her sisters, and while the author has a few secrets she's keeping herself, she doesn't play coy. This road-trip story is suspenseful without making the reader feel manipulated. The author has a knack for efficient yet affecting summary and swift-moving scenes, which together make the sisters' past dynamics and present relationships feel wonderfully rich. Jaswal handles myriad familiar themes related to the complicated experiences of womanhood, immigration, and grief with a fresh voice and mostly seamless prose.
This women-driven story explores family relationships and histories with grace, humor, and warmth.