Wicked Old Woman, A

Stick-leg-shuffle-leg-shuffle: decked out with NHS specs and Oxfam coat, Kulwant masquerades behind her old women's disguise taking life or leaving it as she feels inclined, seeking new adventures or venturing back into her past.

Divorced from her husband, disapproved of by her sons, mistrusted by their wives, Kuli makes real contact through a jigsaw of meetings in the present with Bahadur the Punjabi punk who dusts her down after a carefully calculated fall, with Caroline, her gregarious friend from school days, who watched over her dizzy romance with 'Michael the archangel' with Maya the myopic who can't see beyond her weeping heart, and with Shanti who won't see, whose eyes will remain closed till her runaway daughter returns to the fold.

A sharply observed first novel set in an Asian community in a British city- a witty and confident piece of work from a talented new writer.