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Imprint: Arcadia
Format: B Format
ISBN: 978-1-905147-69-4
Price: £ 7.99
Pages: 244 pp
Date: December 2007
"This very short December column is dominated by Little, Brown, Orion and Pan and has given me time to read a truly charming BlackAmber title that I highly recommend, The Cambridge Curry Club. This is fascinating. Centred on a Cambridge charity shop supporting an Indian village, it unfolds slowly in slices of the volunteers' lives, using delightful caricatures that build to reveal a plot. However, it's their philosophy, hopes and acceptance of life that really shine through this quietly hypnotic novel, very much another in The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency territory" – Sarah Broadhurst, Ones to Watch, Paperback Preview: December, The Bookseller
"Beautifully observed ...warm and poignant ... a delightful debut novel" - Meera Syal
"This is an accomplished, humorous book, which sustains a level of gentle fun at the expense of both Indian and non-Indian helpers and customers at an imaginary charity shop in Cambridge. Without obfuscation, she steers around the multiple offences such a book might cause. There are serious problems that arise for the characters as the book unfolds and she can sometimes be very moving. Thankfully, however, she has not turned it into yet another 'issues' book. She uses the microcosm of Cambridge and its Indian community to say a lot about a number of aspects of British life: the charity shop scene, that ubiquitous feature of every town centre; the delicate balance in minority groups between looking inwards and looking out; the inappropriateness of home grown attitudes in a new environment; the rivalries and status struggles within communities, which outsiders might mistakenly perceive as homogeneous" - Harry Goode, Cambridge Writers
"Unusual and provocative ... if you like a read with chuckles, this is it!" - Ronald Wolfe, Writing Comedy
"The Cambridge Curry Club gives you a glimpse of a Cambridge that exists beyond scholars and celestial choirs." - The Hindu Literary Review
"Comedy Page-Turner" - Cambridge News
"A cheeky postcolonial tale" - The Asian Age
"Delightfully witty debut . . . will have you chuckling till the end." - Desi Magazine
"Curry Club will keep you laughing." - Pride Magazine
"Don’t miss because . . . it’s not about curry, but it is about Cambridge." - Agenda
"Deeply delightful" - Style Magazine
"I can’t remember the last time a book made me chuckle so much." - Purple Elephant
"Balsari shows a remarkable breadth and depth in her treasure trove of storylines to leave you satiated." - Redhotcurry.com
"A delightfully witty account of life around a charity shop in Mill Road, Cambridge." - Cambridge Writers
"Balsari has an eye and an ear for detail which lifts the telling above the mediocre and makes The Cambridge Curry Club a surprisingly enticing read. She rations her characterisation in a way that keeps you reading not so much to find out what will happen, but to find out who this person is, and whether you will like them" - Lesley Mason, The Bookbag
"The Cambridge Curry Club unravels like a puzzle, following a leisurely pace ... there are many comic and poignant moments in this tale" - Asian Woman
'The Cambridge Curry Club is hilarious from start to finish. It will doubtlessly lend itself to a hugely entertaining sitcom. Until that comes off, the print version is recommended for lifting the spirits on a gloomy day' - The Telegraph
'Balsari's wit combined with her lively sense of the ridiculous lifts the mood to deliver a comical romp ... if you're looking for a few laughs, your search ends here' - Daily News and Analysis
'There is something off-beat and intriguing about Saumya Balsari's debut play-turned-novel-just enough to keep you turning the pages ... Balsari breezes through her tale: she has a light and deft pancake-flipping touch ...' - India Today
'A cheeky postcolonial tale' - The Asian Age
'... hilarious in parts ... an enjoyable read' -
The Hindustan Times
'Saumya Balsari is much in the vein of Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy' - Alexander McCall Smith
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The Cambridge Curry Club
Saumya Balsari
Longlisted for the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards
An ironic postcolonial romp that has little to do with British curry, takes a potshot at everything and keeps you laughing until it hurts.
It's Cambridge. Not college or chapel, but the shop 'IndiaNeed' on colourful Mill Road. Nothing should go wrong on a normal day, but everything does. How was an adult video of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sold with the Lego? Disaster, death and romance appear on the menu as three women of Indian origin and a fierce Irishwoman battle their arrogant Armani-clad English employer. Will the bungling heroines survive despite lovers, husbands and eccentric customers?
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