📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd

Happy Publication Day

Avon
9 December 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

‘For my whole life I had been looking for home. But why would that be in a place that I’d left? Perhaps I had to keep moving forward in order to find it…’

Soon after upending her life to accompany her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic, Maya realises it’s not all Northern Lights and husky sleigh rides. Instead, she’s facing sub-zero temperatures, 24-hour darkness, crippling anxiety – and a distant boyfriend as a result.

In her loneliest moment, Maya opens her late mother’s recipe book and cooks Indian food for the first time. Through this, her confidence unexpectedly grows – she makes friends, secures a job as a chef, and life in the Arctic no longer freezes her with fear.

But there’s a cost: the aromatic cuisine rekindles memories of her enigmatic mother and her childhood in Bangalore. Can Maya face the past and forge a future for herself in this new town? After all, there’s now high demand for a Curry Club in the Arctic, and just one person with the know-how to run it…

A tender and uplifting story about family, community, and finding where you truly belong – guaranteed to warm your heart despite the icy setting!

📖 My thoughts..

Set against the icy chill of the Arctic a story about a curry club wouldn't perhaps the first thing that comes to mind but when Maya travels to the Arctic to be with her boyfriend she discovers that her mother's curry recipes can be put to good use. But with the mingling of spices comes an awareness of other things in Maya's life which need to be confronted before she can move forward.

The story was perhaps rather more serious than I expected which was a welcome surprise as there was far more to Maya than I first anticipated especially as it covers her feelings and anxieties, particularly about her past and her Indian heritage. Her sojourn back in Bangalore helps her to explore these feelings in more detail. The icy cold aspect of living in the Arctic is well described and I could feel the cold and experienced the icy terror of dangers which can only be imagined.

The Arctic Curry Club is a well written and thoughtful story about friendship, community and finding a sense of belonging and acceptance.

About the Author

Dani Redd lives in Norwich with her husband. She has an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. Her PhD involved research trips to some of Europe's remotest islands such as Spitsbergen. After her PhD Dani spent two years living in Bangalore where her mother-in-law valiantly tired to teach her how to cook Indian food. The recipes she was taught are featured in this book.

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