Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

It is about finding love late in life in surprising places. It is about people trying to survive in cultures not native to them.

Thank God I stuck with it! This is a lovely little love story, complete with overtones of race, class, and being good enough. I am a patient reader/listener, but have to admit I struggled to get into this book. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?

But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: Honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson