Publication Date: 29th June
Format: Paperback
Price: Pb £10.00
Publisher: Renard Press
I would like to apologise profusely for my late posting of my review of this, searing and heartbreaking look at a family falling apart at the seams without the two adults really noticing. I would like to say a huge thank you to Will of Renard Press for inviting me on to this hard looking book’s tour and for gifting a copy of this book too. I would also like to say a huge thank you to Reshma Ruia for creating such an intriguing and hard hitting and wince inducing main character’s POV (Point Of View), If you love shows such as Peep Show, this book is one for you, it mainly looks into a family man’s life and how he feels he is owed more than what his family provides until an incident happens to draw him back to where he really should be, but is it too late? Intrigued? let’s head over to the blurb and find out a bit more.
Young, handsome and contemptuous of his father’s traditional ways, PK Malik leaves Bombay to start a new life in America. Stopping in Manchester to visit an old friend, he thinks he sees a business opportunity, and decides to stay on. Now fifty-five, PK has fallen out of love with life. His business is struggling and his wife Geeta is lonely, pining for the India she’s left behind. One day PK crosses the path of Esther, the wife of his business competitor, and they launch into an affair conducted in shabby hotel rooms, with the fear of discovery forever hanging in the air.
As soon as I started to read this fascinating and intriguing book, which looks at family and how dysfunctional over time can cause cracks to appear in the surface of a marriage that on the outside looks normal and charming. A father who owns a business (it might be failing but he still has it… just) a wife who’s there to keep the whole family together and whole ( though from what PK thinks of her is a bit unjust and quite cruel) and their only child their son, who is quiet and keeps his head down (or does he feel the emotions swirling between his mother and father a bit too much and does he feel totally alone and not considered at all which can cause anxiety and depression).
With all these complex characters, comes into the mix the marital affair which threatens the life of the mother and son and also to some extent PK himself as he tries to keep both sides of his life separate and secret. For me reading this from the POV of PK the father it at times was incredibly cruel and wince inducing. I almost at times felt frustrated with the main character and at times intensely disliked him, he’s arrogant, cruel and callous and cannot see that his mistakes and decisions will cost him his family’s security and life. This is almost like a King Lear-esque tale of hubris and folly. I found that my sympathies lay with Geeta and his son, and that they all are caught up within his selfishness and casual gas lighting. This is a hard hitting read and might cause a few people to discuss this book quite strongly. I won’t go into more just in case I spoil this strong viewed novel. All I will say is that this will make you think about family dynamics and how pride always comes before a fall and that you are never too old to take a lesson from life.
Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 .
Authors Blurb:
Reshma Ruia is an award-winning author and poet. She has a PhD and a Master’s in Creative Writing from Manchester University, as well as a Bachelor and Master’s from the London School of Economics. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy’. She has published a poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, and a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness; her work has appeared in international anthologies and journals, and she has had work commissioned by the BBC. She is the co-founder of the Whole Kahani – a writers collective of British and South Asian writers. Born in India and brought up in Rome, her writing explores the preoccupations of those who possess a multiple sense of belonging.
I hope you have enjoyed this at times, hard hitting and heart wrenching novel of family, sense of identity and how our actions can affect others around us, that there is always consequences to our mistakes. If you are intrigued by this book and would like to purchase it, I would urge you to get hold of a copy from Renard Press itself as it helps an independent and you might find some other goodies too, or you can always buy from Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!
Zoe's Book Nook 