This is a wonderful debut novel. I am a fan of Indian family stories. The title of the book is relevant throughout, Ishq and Mushq, meaning Love and Smell. Sarna is the lead character in this novel and it is interesting how her character evolves from the elusive, passionate beautiful young woman that Karman falls in love with to the manipulative, deceitful carping wife and mother she becomes. The reader swings from empathy to annoyance with her dramatic overreactions to family life, but all along she has carried tremendous guilt and frustration over secret from her early life. However, how secret is her past and how has the burden of this impacted on future generations.
I thought this was a universal theme. In recent years, my own family has been impacted by long held family secrets, revealed only upon the death of a loved one.
I look forward to reading more of this authors work. ( )

A well written story of an ambitious Indian family as they seek their fortunes in different countries while tackling a past of their own.

For a complete review please click on the link below:

https://onerightword.blogspot.com/2018/06/ishq-and-mushq-priya-basil.html ( )

Very interesting book about a family of Indian origin who first moves to Kenya and then to London. I looked this fact up on the internet, to see the context and the whole new world of which I was unaware, opened up to me. But I suppose we Europeans are probably as self-centered as everybody else. The book opened my eyes to many new topics and ideas and ways to look and appreciate different cultures, and I appreciated this a lot. The story was interesting and well written, and the fantastic elements were used very well, and just like the spices, they sometimes made the perfect harmony and sometimes they simply... overwhelmed. The only thing I really missed in the book was the "solution" or the recurrence of the mango episode from the beginning - I somehow expected the mangoes to reappear... they seemed to have been made so important they just could not disappear from her life. But maybe that was the whole point... ( )

Although this book was a colourful story about love, lies and family secrets, I found it quite a struggle to finish. The character of Sarna I found extremely unlikeable and the way her family reacted to her many whims annoyed me. ( )

The cover caught my eye with this one. I have an interest in Indian novels and consequently devoured this one. Very easy reading, although after the first two chapters I was unsure about it. This is normally the point where I decide to continue or not and I'm pleased I did.

The characters are so well written and I loved how the plot became more complex as time went on. Simply, it is the story of one family, lies and deceit and how truth has a way of coming out (to a certain extent). More deeply, it is an analysis of society; how we try to be things we aren't and always try to make things better than the generation before us yet somehow making similar mistakes!

Politics, culture and history is weaved into this debut novel. You feel very involved with the characters; sometimes liking them and other times despising them. I always found reasons to feel sorry for Sarna the 'tormented' mother even when she was making life difficult for her family with her ways of dealing with things.

You appreciate the suffering Karam (Sarna's husband) went through in the early days of their relationship. Throughout the novel their struggle and dedication is evident and even though their's was not always a marriage filled with love it was clear they had a deepened sense of responsibilty and respect for their culture and each other. Although which one was the predominant feeling I couldn't say.

The style is very easy to read, you feel like you are being told a story and it was this that kept me going when I feel a little bored (which happened only a few times throughout the novel) because, as with real life, there is not always fast-paced action.

As more becomes revealed you become more involved with the characters, which is when I became hooked and in the end couldn't put it down. A very complete novel with all endings tied up neatly but still enough to allow you to wonder beyond the confines of the novel; what may have happened to the family.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. ( )