Balli Kaur Jaswal has written a new type of erotic novel

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows. By Balli Kaur Jaswal. HarperCollins; 309 pages; £14.99. To be published in America by William Morrow in June.

EROTICA is a hot topic for publishers. Americans bought 28.5m romantic novels in print form in 2015. Romance Writers of America, a trade association, says the genre accounts for a third of all novels sold. Random House and Amazon have recently launched imprints to try to sate readers’ lust for steamy stories. HarperCollins paid a six-figure sum for one such titillating book at the London Book Fair in 2016.

Balli Kaur Jaswal’s “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows”, the book in question, is not your usual lip-biting, troubled-billionaire fare. It follows Nikki, a university dropout and “fem fighter”, who signs up to teach a creative-writing course to older Sikh women in Southall, a London suburb with a sizeable Indian population. Unable to read or write in English, the widows turn to telling stories, reliving their most passionate moments or picturing what they “were never given in the first place”. Though they lack the necessary vocabulary—the stories are filled with references to “aubergines”, “cucumbers”, “sticks” and “lady pockets”—it quickly becomes clear that these supposedly conservative women do not lack imagination.

Yet these stories, where lascivious ladies demand what they want from husbands and lovers of both sexes, chafe against the sensibilities of a community that still upholds a strict honour code. The Brothers, a group of bullish young men, “consider themselves Southall’s morality police”, even offering bounty-hunting services to families with wayward daughters. The unresolved deaths of Karina, Gulshan and Maya, three defiant young women, are the subject of knowing whispers and salacious rumours. While the widows delight in finding their voices, it becomes increasingly clear that some women have paid a heavy price for trying to be heard.

“Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows” balances darkness and light, social commentary and ecstatic escapism: it is a well-gauged equilibrium that keeps the sex writing from feeling monotonous, and reinvigorates the subplots of honour killings and arranged marriages. Ms Jaswal has written a funny and moving tale of desire and its discontents. It serves as a reminder that even the most traditional societies often come in 50 shades of grey.