In Shashi Bhat’s often witty and occasionally disturbing coming-of-age novel The Most Precious Substance on Earth, we meet Nina as a shy 14-year-old with a serious crush on her English teacher. Nina’s family is Indian, her parents devout Hindus, steeped in tradition, who worry about their daughter and look forward to a time in the not-too-distant future when she will be “settled” (ie, suitably married, with children). But the family lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Nina spends most of her time with her irreverent best friend Amy, absorbing the rebellious youth culture to which she is exposed on a daily basis. This clash of cultures is one of the novel’s pivotal elements. Nina is divided. She is aware of her responsibility to her family, but her world—1990s urban Canada—is thoroughly modern, a place buzzing with distractions and sexual energy, offering a limitless vista of opportunities that has nothing to do with her Indian heritage. Structured as a series of linked stories, Bhat’s novel follows Nina through a succession of life choices and career changes as she struggles to figure out who she is and what she wants to become. Moving on after a shocking, traumatic encounter with her English teacher, Nina learns the art of keeping secrets. When Amy falls in with a new crowd and later drops out of school and out of Nina’s life, Nina is left to navigate her difficult late teens on her own. A few years later she enrols in an MFA program and moves to Baltimore. But loneliness, emotional isolation, and a chronic lack of confidence take a huge toll, undermining her efforts to exert her independence. Nina drops out and moves back home. After a few more years pass Nina, now approaching thirty, finds a position as a high school English teacher. She is still unsure of herself and her abilities, but as an adult she is more adept at faking confidence she doesn’t feel. Again though, she is thrown off balance in only her first term on the job, experiencing a bewildering and frightening episode with an infatuated student who lacks boundaries. Eventually, Nina quits teaching and finds herself adrift, living with her parents, using online dating apps, blogging about life and love. Her story comes full circle when she receives devastating news about Amy and feels nothing: “To be honest, I’m too far removed from Amy now to feel actual grief. This person who was once the most vivid part of my daily life is now just a social media afterthought. The punchline to a dark joke whose opening I can’t recall.” Nina’s journey through the world is anything but smooth. She makes poor choices. She encounters setbacks and struggles to believe in herself. But her story of endurance and survival is authentic and honest. The Most Precious Substance on Earth is a moving and memorable work of fiction from an author worth watching. Shashi Bhat writes with a light touch, but her novel is weighty with hard truths. ( )

This book is billed as a novel, but is really a collection of inter-related short stories. At the beginning, Nina is a 14-year-old of east Indian descent, born and living in Halifax. The book follows her high school and university days, her subsequent career as a teacher, blogger and on-line dating client There is a gap between each chapter, and people who figured prominently, for the most part, are never heard of again. That's a problem in a novel, in my opinion. But as connected stories, it's okay.

What made this book a great read for me was Nina herself. Her character is complex and and she is very honest with the reader about what she's thinking. Her observations on life are often funny and spot on.

There is also a theme of women who are silent. Nina doesn't talk about traumatic events in her life. As a teacher, then as a blogger, she works to find her voice and improve her public speaking -- often with mixed results. This is the issue the book has left me pondering...and I like books that make me think. ( )

3.5 stars

Nina is an East Indian girl, growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is mostly vignettes of her life, starting in grade 9 in the 1990s and continuing through high school and beyond, as she becomes a teacher and navigates online dating.

I thought this was good. I liked Nina’s parents, and I liked many of the pop culture references. I was a bit confused that there was something at the beginning that never seemed to be tied up, though. I kept wondering if it would resurface later in the book, but it didn’t – unless I missed it. ( )