The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters

March 4, 2019
Jaswal’s witty, emotional second novel (after Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows) is a heartfelt story of three sisters agreeing to the wishes of their deceased mother. The Shergill sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—travel to India to embark on a Sikh pilgrimage and scatter their mother’s ashes. The sisters have never been close, and are quite distant now. Both Rajni, a school principal, and Jezmeen, a struggling actress, live in the U.K. Shirina moved to Australia, where she lives with her husband, Sehaj, and his controlling mother. Their journey in India is filled with bickering between Rajni and Jezmeen over Jezmeen’s clothing choices, while Rajni and Jezmeen express concern over Shirina and her limited participation in the trip. As the three women view the splendor of some of the Sikh temples of India, the bond of sisterhood becomes stronger. When Rajni and Jezmeen sense that Shirina is in trouble, they are able to look past their own problems to come to her aid. Jaswal reveals much about the sisters’ personalities through the use of flashbacks, explaining how previous events shaped their lives. Teen and adult fans of women’s fiction will find much to appreciate here. Agent: Anna Power, Johnson & Alcock.

March 15, 2019
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.

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Narrator Soneela Nankani is the principal performer of this audiobook about three British sisters who travel to India to honor their mother's deathbed request to scatter her ashes in the sacred waters of her homeland. Rajni, a conservative educator; Jezmeen, a struggling actress; and Shirnia, a newlywed living in Australia, haven't always gotten along, so it's with mixed feelings that they've agreed to undertake the trip together. Nankani highlights the sisters' different personalities and private agendas while balancing the humor of the road trip mishaps with the more serious themes of mother-daughter relationships, marriage, religion, and culture. She also delivers believable, respectful accents for both British and Indian characters. Narrator Deepti Gupta nicely performs the short sections voiced directly by the Shergill sisters' mother. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

March 1, 2019
Sita Kaur Shergill is dying of cancer. She has had enough of this ghastly life, but before she goes, she leaves epistolary final wishes that her three British-born daughters journey together to India on [her] behalf. Her detailed itinerary is exacting, from serving others to taking cleansing ritual baths to a spiritual mountain trek, all of which?grumble, grumble?the hardly close Shergill sisters must do together. The timing is less than ideal for London-based Rajni and Jezmeen: the former's 18-year-old son has just announced he is engaged to a woman twice his age who's pregnant with his child; Jezmeen's acting career is teetering on a bizarre scandal. Meanwhile, the youngest, Shirina, travels from Australia, where she has lived since her year-ago wedding?the trip providing a convenient opportunity to fulfill her husband and mother-in-law's demands. Of course, all sorts of drama ensues, with much tending toward the obvious. Predictability aside, Jaswal's (Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, 2017) tendency to insert cloying references to future reveals may incite eye rolling rather than inspiring engagement. Still, her many fans will be happy for a new read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)