Jas tries to rekindle her relationship with her family after her daughter's birth but things were never the same again. Her failed relationships, marriages and bad decisions were what made her the strong woman that she is now. When her sister Robina commits suicide, she promises to help women who are pushed in to forced marriages. Her organization Karma Nirvana has been assisting thousands of women ever since. Jas's story is not one of victimization but is of survival. I could never understand her mother's cold behaviour, about the fact that parents can be so ruthless in the name of religion and honour. Tender, unflinching and blisteringly funny, What a Shame glitters with rage and heartbreak, perfect for fans of Emma Jane Unsworth, Dolly Alderton and Holly Bourne. Lareese’s Review I’m not a fan of the ‘Poor me’ autobiography genre. Mostly I find such books dull, embarrassing and often a bit manipulative. Some of them I just don’t believe and suspect are padded for sympathy. I’m not, therefore, the sort of person who reads this sort of book. What I find particularly interesting is trying to understand what it’s like to be caught between two cultures – the culture of your parents and the countries they’ve left behind and the culture of your birth country where they’ve settled. Perhaps it’s about a sense of belonging and fitting in that most people crave regardless of where they’ve come from. The idea of a curse was divisive, but the assertion that I had, for some time now, been ‘laden with something dark’ was disconcertingly unanimous. At the end of the book I was glad to finally been able to agree with her. For instance her fight against forced marriage and more importantly her fight against so called Honour killings. Great work.

Intelligent, moving and darkly comic . . . taking us deftly from serious explorations of trauma and consent to riotously funny scenes of modern life’ Jasvinder recognised that there were many other women trapped like her sister and many like herself rebelling against family pressure. But also she realised that women of her mother’s age who were trapped in the silence of not speaking English and not being able to deal with the world around them. She made it her mission to make a difference to British Asian women, to challenge the practice of forced marriage, to provide sanctuary to women in danger and to help with counselling and therapy through her charity, Karma Nirvana. I really wanted to love this book but ultimately... It's okay? There are a lot of books like this - semi-functional sad girl protagonist with some deep seated trauma and a group of good quirky friends - which is a genre I generally vibe with. But this one...it just fell flat. I think possibly trying to do too many things at once, and the shifts in tone and voice and up pretty unsatisfying. But it's not bad! It's possible I might have got more out of it if I hadn't read other versions of This Book that I liked more or felt a greater emotional link to. So I don't want to be too critical, hence the 3 stars. What a Shame’ is a perfect balance of genuine heart and awkward humour. If you enjoyed ‘Fleabag’ and writers like Caitlin Moran and Dawn O’ Porter I think you’ll love this debut. An intelligent, moving and darkly comic debut, taking us deftly from serious explorations of trauma and consent to riotously funny scenes of modern life - it's like Fleabag with a sprinkling of the occult'- The Sunday TimesShame is Jasvinder's true story, about how she was raised, how her sisters had arranged marriages and how her marriage was also being arranged. She ran away from home and as result got cut off from her family. I loved it. Jasvinder's story is so unbelievable to me, that I couldn't stop reading it. Even though I know this is happening right under my nose, I still find it so unbelievable. How can people treat their own family this way?! Growing up in the Midwest, I never experienced such drastic family cultures. I was raised to think that everyone is the same, and never to judge skin color or to see someone based on their status. It's so crazy to me that this culture is so racist, sexist, and biased. How can we live in this day and age and not be more socially accepting? These poor women need help, and I wish I was able to help them. First of all it pissed me off, the way her parents thought they were better than The English people, they considered white, low class (there words , not mine) but the whites were good enough to let them live there and care for them and this is what is wrong with Europe nowadays.

For anyone who’s ever grappled with shame and self-worth or felt a little lost in life, allow What A Shameto hit you in the feels and bring you home to yourself (cue the book hangover). Jasvinder Sanghera is the founder of British Human Rights charity, Karma Nirvana who support all victims of Honour Abuse and Forced Marriage.

Jasvinder grew up in Derby in a traditional Sikh family with several of her siblings. But it was her brother who always scored special treatment from her parents. Living in a guarded community, Jas wasn't even allowed to cut her hair or put on makeup for it was considered too frivolous. Girls were liabilities, someone who were arranged to be married off at just 15. After witnessing abusive marriages around her including that of her sisters', Jas decides to run away when she's presented with a man much older than her who was to be her husband. Her parents'expected rejection of her Punjabi boyfriend because he belonged to a lower status was the final push that freed Jas. The two struggle to survive outside the community and for many years, she is cut off from the family. Adults meets little scratch in this bold, funny and tender debut, which captures the pain of heartbreak and the universal heat of female shame through a very unique journey towards self-acceptance. I loved her volunteer work, her learning at every stage. I am happy she met the women she met. I am grateful for their open mindedness, their empathy and non judgement.

Concerned that she isn’t moving on, Mathilda’s friends push her towards a series of increasingly unorthodox remedies. Until the seams of herself begin to come undone. I read about depression, guilt, shame, anger, despair, sadness, rejection, determination and many more emotions. It also explores the notion of social media and how nothing you see online is ‘real’ and everybody has something going on, everybody has their own “stuff” whether they share it or not. Affecting, clever and blisteringly humorous... a riveting read about heartbreak, female shame and self-acceptance' - Sarra Manning, Red Magazine Don’t forget to let yourself be sad. You are allowed. Grief is a good thing. It means that you loved someone. It means that they mattered.”

Abigail Bergstrom's new novel What a Shame is a warm, frank and introspective look at the aftermath of heartbreaking events

For all of us second-generation migrants who are writing from the fraught perspective of what we owe to our parents, this short story is shattering. The son of Jewish immigrants to the US, Schwartz perfectly captures the burden of shame the immigrant’s child feels of never being able to compensate for their parents’ exile and sacrifice. I could tattoo this short story on my skin.