The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters

A special thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is about three British-born sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—who do not get along very well, especially now that they are adults. The sisters embark on a pilgrimage to India in order to fulfil their mother's dying wishes, and to lay her to rest.

Rajni is a school principal. She is serious in nature and is always trying to maintain some form of control, especially over her teenage son. Jezmeen is a struggling actress, who at thirty, fears she'll never make it. Shirina is the peacemaker in the family. She is the good girl who has married into a traditional, yet very wealthy, family.

When Rajni was a child, she visited India with show more her mother, Sita, and vowed never to go back. But being a dutiful daughter, she must cary out her mother's last wish. For Jazmeen, the timing is perfect. She has just been publicly fired from her job in television. The timing also seems to agree with Shirina, who is having trouble at home with her overbearing in-laws. They are pushing her to make a decision that will have a lasting impact on her married life—she needs to decide whether to obey as expected, or for once, stand up for herself.

Travelling to India, the girls all experience self-discovery as well as the voyage brings them together as Sita had hoped it would. The sisters also learn more about their mother, as well as what really happened on the trip that she and Rajni took and why Sita could never return to India.

After reading the hilarious and heart-warming Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, I was sincerely thrilled to be selected to review The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters. What I enjoyed (again) about Jaswal's writing is the humour that is sprinkled throughout—there are a lot of wonderful comedic bits to this story that balance out the more weightier parts that surface over the course of the narrative.

This book is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. Women have to be more aware and alert when travelling, especially in a male-dominated society. Balli does women a great service by writing about some of these challenges and considerations. These dangers also contributed to the palpable tension that is present throughout the story; there is tension between the sisters because of their shared history, as well as the tension between tradition and modernity. The Shergill girls are the first generation in their family to be raised outside of India. They struggle with straddling both worlds, especially returning to a country that is tied to their past—they can identify with the culture, however, they don't fully belong there. In The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, this plays out in moments of confusion, humour, misunderstanding, and conflict.

Jaswal's writing is powerful, yet thoughtful, and of course, charming. What amazes me how she can shine a spotlight on issues that Indian women face, but is so graceful and engaging, striking the perfect tone. Another gem! show less

I picked this up not knowing what to expect but hoping for something on the lighter end of fiction that didn’t lean in to being Chick Lit™. I was pleasantly surprised when Jaswal delivered exactly that without shying away from darker topics. I breezed through it and was pretty charmed.

I’m also impressed, because balancing “light summer-read tone” and “Indian adventure for Indians and non-Indians alike” with “commentary on what it means to be part of the Indian diaspora” and “pretty pointed look at feminist issues in Indian culture” is tricky enough, and then Jaswal threw in a heartwarming story of family reconnecting and women changing for the better, with thoroughly believable and complicated characters, on top of show more that.

Like, seriously, the way these women are only who they are because of their childhoods and upbringing, and the way they change and push each other to do so, and how all that is also couched in the generations they belong to is … I’m not sure I’ve seen that depth in a book that reads this lightly. She even gives side characters enough realness to push them beyond the stereotypes they could have been. Everyone’s got their own problems, all different from each others’ and what you might expect, and … yeah. Nicely done.

So, things you’ll get in this book: sniping and miscommunication and stubbornness; Indian and specifically Sikh set pieces since the sisters are supposed to be volunteering at temples a lot; moments like the hotel that cooks nothing on its menu and the taxi driver who quotes Castaway that are a little goofy but hey, these things happen; family history that pokes through bit by bit until you get a clear picture; a real sense of what there is to love and to not-love about India; moments of epiphany and sisterly heroism; relatable characters—but also leering men, protest marches, the viciousness of social media and conservative relatives, the desire to be Indian but not too Indian, people who deal with grief and shock and fear badly, nasty mothers-in-law, and men who can’t be bothered to help around the house, among the other things I mention below.

Basically, if you’re in the mood I was, wanting something light but not too light, diversity and feminism without the book being Diverse And Feminist, something to cozy up with and tear through, something to make you laugh and also tear up a little, something to take you out of yourself and show you a bit of the world, I don’t think this book’s going to disappoint much at all. Didn’t quite make it to an 8 for me, because some of the hijinks and resolutions felt a bit contrived for my liking, but … ‘tis the genre and the title, after all.

To bear in mind: This book is heavily concerned with feminist issues and issues of the Indian diaspora, so expect mention of or plot points relating to misogyny, institutional misogyny, sexual harassment, rape, honour killings, forced abortions, domestic abuse, gaslighting, culture clashes, and anti-Indian slurs, all presented as bad things and never getting visceral. Also contains cancer, alcoholism, mental illness, suicide, and fish murder. If you really, really can’t handle a minor relationship with a 15 year-ish age gap, this is not for you.

7.5/10 show less

Determined to honor their mother's dying wish, which was for them to make a pilgrimage together to sacred sites in their ancestral region of India, sisters Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina embark on the journey with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The sisters are VERY different, but each is struggling with personal secrets, and each feels guilt about their last moments with their mother.

I was absorbed in this story right from the start, perhaps partly because, having just lost my own father, many of the themes, thoughts and emotions depicted resonated strongly. It all felt very realistic, and I empathized with each of the women while simultaneously learning a little about Sikh faith and holy rituals. It was beautifully-told.

I received an ARE of this from a Goodreads Giveaway - thanks!

Would I recommend this: yes!!!
For fans of travel, learning new cultures, exploring family dynamics, and wonderfully written and developed characters. Left me fist pumping and cheering along with them!

OHMYGOD, I loved this! I was so excited to read it, and it was one of those books where within 20 pages you know you were right and you WILL love this book. I love learning about places and cultures through reading, even novels, and this was a new one for me: Sikhism and India. I enjoyed learning about the little bits they mentioned in the book, but as a story it was so strong as well!

The characters are the absolute best. It can be hard to develop strong characters when you have show more several all taking turns narrating, but they each provided insight into themselves as well as each other when they took their turn in the story. Even the mother, who is dead basically the whole time, feels like a familiar friend by the middle of it. One whose quirks and flaws and passions I know and love.

One great aspect of this novel is the lack of a romance line. It's very firmly based on the sisters and them learning about themselves as individuals as well as a group. The secrets that each sister has throughout their pilgrimage through India are hinted at and built upon, but not in that way where it feels so blunt and tactless; none of those single sentences at the end of chapter just saying "She thought she would be ok... until she remembered what he had said before she left." or some rubbish like that. My god, that gets annoying, right? These were gracefully and naturally woven in, which is key in any story for me.

Is it predictable? In some ways, yes. I had a feeling they would all find their happy endings, reconcile, and all that. But the method of each resolution was hazy enough to keep an air of mystery for me, and I loved it for that. I knew the what, but not the how, and isn't the journey all the fun of it anyway? show less

Luminous!

A journey undertaken by the British Punjabi sisters Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia to scatter their mothers ashes in India becomes a pilgrimage towards love, understanding and acceptance, and a reworking of the bond that threads sisters together.
Three Sikh sisters reunite to meet their mother last request and in doing so uncover so much more.
A stunning story of family, that also uncovers practices and prevalent attitudes towards women, touching on inheritance, the bias against female babies, along with tenets of faith and devotion, and the tension these attributes bring for the more modern woman.
Jezmeen, the actress who seems to go on free-for-all binges and rants that have her worst moments captured on YouTube.
Rajni, the eldest show more sister who is responsible, uptight and disapproving.
Shirnia, who hides a secret that will be exposed, and in that exposure finds the support and acceptance she so desperately craves.
As the journey continues, the sisters' relationship become more transparent and some of the past becomes clear.
I loved these sisters' interactions, the exposure of their fears and desires, their past hurts and their growing together. I laughed and I cried for the complexities and the many misunderstandings, countered by moments of joy and empathy, as their pilgrimage became a homage to their mother's wisdom and their return to each other.
Wonderful!

A Harper Collins ARC via NetGalley show less

After reading Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows and really enjoying it, I was so excited to receive the ARC for this one. This book turned out to be quite different from what I was expecting but it was nevertheless, a very interesting read.

Rajni is the eldest sister, a school principal who likes rules and everything to be in an orderly fashion. However, she was not always like this and things that happened in her past completely changed her attitude and now when things are again uncertain in her life, she is not sure how to handle everything. Jezmeen is a struggling actress who’s just lost her job and gone infamously viral. She also has always been a rebel and resists every attempt by Rajni to follow their pilgrimage schedule and show more resents her sister for being so strict. Shirina has always tried to be the perfect daughter but felt too invisible in her own home and being scared of any confrontations has left her as the person who always adjusts and makes sure everyone else is happy. I could relate to some parts of each of these sisters and it made the reading experience quite surreal - sometimes nostalgic and sometimes even uncomfortable.

The writing is as usual very engaging. The author uses the stories of these three sisters to give us a picture of immigrant life in Britain, the clash of cultures between traditional parents and their British born kids and sometimes, even the second generation immigrant kids. Through the trip that the characters take, we see a different view of India too - how the noise and crowds can sometimes feel overwhelming; even after so much development, how the sexism and misogyny is so ingrained that it manifests in everyday little things; how female foeticide in parts of India is still rampant and sometimes, these ideas don’t disappear just because someone has immigrated to a more modern country. The author also manages to give us a nuanced portrait of the relationship between three sisters - who were not close while growing up and even held resentments towards each other, but being in close proximity after the death of their mother forces them to acknowledge their issues and maybe pave the way for a better relationship going forward. It’s also great to see them have each other’s back despite any lingering issues.

This book is a very interesting portrayal of family dynamics and sisterhood, traditional vs modern thinking and how it affects our everyday life. It’s a very honest picture of three sister’s lives told with drama, humor and mystery which makes for a fascinating read. I would definitely recommend this one if you enjoyed the author’s previous book and are interested in depictions of the myriad of issues that women face in everyday life. show less

I so loved Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows that I was sure I'd love this book too, but it irritated me so much, I almost stopped reading it. These days with all the controversy about mask-wearing and the question of just what we're willing to do to keep our community safe, this book about relationships in and duty to family is very timely. Just how much do you owe your family when it conflicts with your own personal desires? This part borders on infuriating. Then there's the trip to India. After seeing Adam Sandler's Uncut Gems I was sure I never wanted to see the "real" side of New York City. I've never wanted to visit India just because of the descriptions I've read of the heat and odors, and this book brings that home. I do like show more what the author has to say about men loving the freedom of biking through India and the wonderful hospitality they feel as they eat in the homes of strangers, and how this differs from a woman alone trying to navigate her way through the country. But, if you read it, soldier on. It does have something to say. show less