A short but heartbreaking book about a shop assistant's life in India...his yearning for something more and his utter defeat. A book I couldn't put down

Beautiful, thought provoking writing about the have's and have not's - the enormous gap between stark poverty and frivolous wealth, the class system, those with power, the invisibility of the poor. Also a reminder of the loss which arises from religious and political differences. Like the main character, there were things I had to look up in order to understand - to enjoy the visual and sensual images of the novel. But I have a better understanding of a fascinating, ancient culture with each book I read. The novel has despair and hope, acceptance and fatality illustrated by well drawn characters. I really liked this book and am looking forward to reading her next - Tell me a Story.

The story started well, character building was great. But overall a very depressing book. Why couldn’t it have a little hopeful end? Why so sad? There was a hope in the start of the story line that the main character, Ramchand will make his way up the ladder, learn English, do something good with his life. He was a hopeful person. It could very well have been an inspiring story rather than bleak at all aspects. He ended right where he started. Everyone’s lives have revolved in same circles.
Even Kamla, was young, hardworking, doing well for her worth, in the start of her story. She too ends up so badly? Drunk, raped, hopeless, killed just for making loud noises at rich business man’s gate? Unfair. All this happens and is believable but may be I expected much better then this after ‘tell me a story’.
Yes, there are differences between 2 classes of society. And the rich, influential people do misuse the power at their disposal. But this is one side of the coin.
Book is written well but Title of the book dint tell me that it is gonna be so dismal.

I am really amazed at how good this book was! I wasn't expecting anything even close to this. The Sari Shop brought forth subtly and effortlessly the class differences rampant in society and how it actually acts out in people's lives. The narrative is beautiful and well paced, taking its time to lay out the background and then amping up the suspense.

Ramchand is a 26 year old man working in a sari shop in Amritsar. Through his work, he comes in contact with a large number of women from the upper class of the city - wives and daughters of prominent businessmen, professionals, academics, and so on. For years, he drones along in a monotonous pace. But when he is sent out of the shop to take saris to the Kapoor household for their daughter's wedding, he gets a glimpse of how the other 1 percent lives.

Suitably impressed, the luxury of the Kapoor home gives Ramchand the motivation to brush up on his long-forgotten English and hope revives that he would be able to do something more in life than just sell saris. But things don't work out that way since English is not the only thing his brief contact with the Kapoors expose him to.

Another major character in the book is Kamla, who has come from a small town to the north of Amritsar. She is married to a colleague of Ramchand and after his visit to the Kapoors, he gets inextricably involved in Kamla's life, despite not knowing her at all.

The story depicts the stark contrast of life in the city where people like the wealthy Kapoors live cheek by jowl with people like Ramchand, who pretty much lives in a hovel. However, while the Kapoors wrestle with their first world problems, the consequences of their struggles are directly felt by the poor section of the society.

The book also deals with class feminism and its hypocrisy. When it comes to feminism, many middle and upper class women don't consider poor women a part of the movement. While a Kapoor girl is rightly encouraged to make more of herself than just a wife and homemaker, someone like Kamla is considered utter filth and indecent, unworthy of mixing with 'decent' people.

The characters in this book are so well developed that it felt as if I knew them personally. The author takes her time to set the scene, and she does it perfectly. She adds in such small details of people and places that the whole book was like a film in my mind.

The Sari Shop is a book that forces you to humanise the people who work for you - your drivers, cooks, maids, gardeners, and those like Ramchand without whom the great urban commerce would fall flat and all your convenience destroyed. It forces you to think about the lives of people, irrespective of their class, and consider them as persons. And what's more, it does all this through a beautiful story with a well-paced narrative, and well-developed characters. This would easily be one of the best books I have read this year!

Such a relatable main character with a great story!

Two thirds exotic; one third despair.

For the first two thirds, this book meanders through Amritsar and the life of Ramchand, a lowly sales assistant in a stuffy sari shop. The descriptions of daily Iife in the city are detailed and bring to life a poor but exotic place I'd like to visit. It's a very colourful, exotic and inoffensive. Ramchand's Iife is ordered and uneventful, verging on tedious, with his aspirations to improve himself and his position. Then boom! Kamla and her pathetic life bring the oppresivenes of poverty into sharp relief against the callousness and excess of the rich factory and business owners. In a few chapters, reminiscent of Camus' ''L'etranger', Ramchard is forced to face up to and acknowledge the despair and hopelessness of his existence. Great read; where the sights, sounds, materials, colours, food and smells of Amritsar turn suddenly from colourful and exotic to pathetic and appalling.

رواية جميلة رغم كآبتها، وترجمة سلسة وممتعة إلى العربية، فقط أحسست أن إنتفاضة البطل في الرواية إشتعلت حدة دون دوافع قوية، وخمدت فجأة كذلك ،

I gave this book five stars because the ending made me think. As a child, Ramchand had doting parents and a hopeful future. Then his parents were killed in a bus accident and he was thrown into an almost Dickensian life, living with relatives who both tolerated and robbed him of any legacy that he might have had. His life now revolves around his place of employment, the Sevak Sari House. Although he has long accepted his plight, he begins to be awakened to the unfairness of the social structure. Does he become a social activist or does he return to his ordinary life and accept all the cruelties he has seen? Why does he end up doing what he did?

من الروايات الجميلة التي قرأتها قبل عدة سنوات، تحكي عن مشكلة الطبقية وهي واحدة من المشاكل المزمنة في المجتمع الهندي.

I am amazed that this novel is little known among readers of Indian English fiction. It was by happenstance that I discovered this hidden gem, The Sari Shop, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner. As soon as I came across this book, I knew I had to read it—the title was intriguing, and the blurb looked promising. I must say, I was not disappointed.

The narrative is exceptionally well-crafted. The novel effectively and effortlessly portrays class differences and misogyny. Though Ramchand, a salesman at Sevak Sari Shop, is the protagonist, it is Kamla, the unfortunate woman, who steals the show. Kamla, with her hardened exterior, still lingers in my mind as the little girl who once cherished her cheap red glass beads. A victim of patriarchy and poverty, she remains unforgettable—a rebel who simply couldn't accept her fate.

However, The Sari Shop is not just Kamla's tragic story. It also reflects how people like us respond to issues affecting women. Ramchand represents us—the passive spectators who react to injustice for a week or two before falling silent again. The question remains: Are we the Ramchands or the Kamlas? Or can we muster the courage to become someone else altogether—someone who dares to bring even a small change to the world around us?

I think you should read this if you are looking for noteworthy Indian books.

What an immensely disappointing ending. There was such promise, then….. nothing. Only to return to how everything was before. After what SHOULD have been life changing experiences! If there is a point to such a deflating finale, what ever would it be?!

I am not the sort of reader who often feels compelled to discuss a book or to talk to an author about their work. More often that not, I read, forget the book, and get on with my life. But I can't stop thinking about this book and the subtle turns of phrase and word choices. The language is so spare and precise, that I can't help but think about the intentions. I could talk for hours about the characters and their motivations and their roles. This is the best fiction I have read in a really, really long time.