Sugarbread

Ten year-old Parveen Kaur (Pin) knows she must not become like her mother Jini, but doesn t know why. She tries to figure out her mother's moods through her cooking even as she fights other battles being a bursary student in an elite Christian school, facing hateful racial taunts from Bus Uncle and classmates like Abigail Goh. When her meddlesome Nani ji Kulwant moves in, installing portraits of Sikh gurus whose features seem to change with the atmosphere of the house, she brings with her a new set of rules. And old secrets begin to tumble out. A powerful coming-of-age story about women, sexism, racism, food and memory, Balli Jaur Jaswal's life-affirming second novel is hard to forget.