Book 4 toppled – a story of love, regret and acceptance

Last December I purchased a book Advent Calendar. I received 24 books and opened one each day leading up to Christmas. All the books were second hand and I had no idea what had been chosen except that they would fit the genres I asked for, which were mainly crime and literary fiction. China Room by Sunjeev Sahota was one of those books which I opened and then added to the book towers to be read in due course. This current challenge constitutes due course and I am glad that I have finally got to this book which I really enjoyed but which I might not have picked up for myself. Here is what I thought when I originally opened the parcel.

The book is set in a farm in the Punjab in the 1920s where three young women have entered into marriage with three brothers. The women clean and cook for the family and are kept segregated in the China Room where they live together until they bear a son for the family – the understanding is if they don’t then they will never become a true part of the family. The women visit the men in the dark and have no part in their lives; they don’t even know which man is their husband. Mehar is one of those women who thinks, through a misunderstanding, that she knows who her husband is. She begins to flirt with this young man and soon they are meeting away from the house and Mehar has fallen in love. When the true identity of her husband is revealed, and the fact of her adultery known, the family has to decide how to deal with this in a community where a woman involved in sex outside marriage is punished publically.

Alongside Mehar’s story is that of the narrator who is a young man, a great-grandson of Mehar, who lives in Britain. In order to recover from addiction issues he travels to the Punjab and eventually to the farm where he becomes involved with two people who live locally – soon his behaviour is causing rumours and gossip and he risks ruining the reputation and future of a woman doctor who has befriended him.

This story is about the position of women in societies where they are not regarded and where they bear the blame for the behaviour of men. It’s also a story about accepting what happens to you, living with regret, how little we often know about what is happening in relationships, and of love in difficult circumstances. It’s not a long book but it’s beautifully written and the daily life of the family at the farm is at the heart of the story and it is wonderfully depicted.

I very much enjoyed this book. My copy is in excellent condition so I will pass it on to my favourite Oxfam bookshop for a new reader to find.