Two out of three

Corner Shop
by Roopa Farooki

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.

George Bernard Shaw

Corner Shop details the the dreams of three generations of a multi-racial family in London. The above maxim proves to be true as we see two very unhappy individuals at the end. One who achieves it all yet achieves nothing, with the other does nothing they want, but has everything. The third player tries to do avoid anything after tragedy strikes and yet ends up happy.

I like this book but come away with an empty feeling, as if the book could have had more substance. There is more to this story that wasn't told, maybe constrained by trying to tell three stories instead of focusing on just one.

2 out of 3? When I am scanning for new fiction I have never heard of I am usually looking for three things - Female, Foreign, and Funny. The first two because I most of what I read is from male American authors, and the last because I like funny.