This book grabbed me with the title alone.  But it’s actually a really good story too.  It’s not just about elders reclaiming their sexuality and reasserting their humanity, but it is about that.  Nikki, a 20-something disappointment to her mother, signs up to teach a creative writing course for seniors at her local Punjabi community center.  But when she shows up she realizes the widows are there for her to teach them to read and write in English.  As they work through these misunderstandings they start to form a community where the widows want to share erotic stories that the rest of the community doesn’t think is appropriate for widows.

As word gets out about what’s really happening at this class some of the conservative young men in the community decide they need to put a stop to this, but as Nikki gets closer to her students and starts to learn more about the reality of a community she’s felt rejected by and actively distanced herself from, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she realized as she’s drawn into the story of a young wife’s death.

Favorite Parts - I love getting to see the relationships between these different generations of women as they start to trust each other and learn how much they can offer one another.  Also the moments when the women band together to assert themselves and push back on parts of their culture that want them to stay silent and forgotten.

Read This If You - Want to read a story set in a Punjabi community in London (or haven’t read one before), love stories of women standing up to men who just want them to be silent and biddable, think the worlds needs more stories of inter-generational relationships between women, want to support diverse authors and stories