THE UNLIKELY ADVENTURES OF THE SHERGILL SISTERS

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.