The Cambridge Curry Club

Saumya Balsari

It says on the back cover 'If you like a read with chuckles, this is it.' I have to agree. The IndiaNeed charity shop in Cambridge is a marvellous setting. The interweaving of the lives of four women, three of Indian origin and one Irishwoman, together with the formidable Diana Wellington-Smythe (Director on the Board of the Charity), allows a feast of gentle comedy to ensue. If you found The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency a welcome respite from weightier tomes this is a must-read.

Extract

Swarnakumari was a charitable woman, and her thoughts, like her puja table for the gods, faced eastward. She had initially read fiction to Jean Ward, a blind woman in a Cambridge nursing home, but her strongly accented English proved too much for her elderly listener, who promptly fell asleep each time. Swarnakumari had enthusiastically recited an entire novel, unaware that her listener had not progressed beyond the first page. Jean Ward passed away peacefully in the Prologue of the second novel.

Parallels