I love spicy food, and I once spent eight months working in the High Arctic, so when I saw Dani Redd’s novel The Arctic Curry Club, I had to pick it up. The premise is an interesting one, too. Maya Reed-Kaur’s boyfriend Ryan has got a job doing research on polar bears, so she goes with him to the tiny, remote town of Longyearbyen, expecting an adventure. Northern Lights, sled rides, that sort of Hallmark-card-esque fun. But when reality bites, and crippling anxiety comes calling, Maya falls back on cooking her long-deceased mother’s favorite Indian dishes, with very unexpected results.

At first Maya is the proverbial fish out of water. She doesn’t enjoy winter sports, she’s uneasy with strangers and panicky in crowds, and as her relationship with Ryan disintegrates under the pressures of the new situation and her anxiety, she’s left at a loose end. The sub-zero temperature is murderous, it’s dark nearly 24/7, and she never expected some of the privations in the town, such as when she moves into a cabin and the bathroom facilities are outside. This leads to the only thing about the story I found gross, because one night she uses a pressure cooker to relieve herself. I’m sorry to be squeamish, but as far as I’m concerned, once a receptacle has served such a purpose, it should never hold food again. (There is no indication that the pressure cooker was re-used, but there’s nothing about it being thrown out either).

Other than that, though, I enjoyed Maya’s adaptation to her new home. Asked to take a job cooking for a few people in a tourist stop, she protests she’s not very good, but they’re willing to try anything. Very realistic, since the food choices in the High Arctic are limited to say the least! So Maya does her best to recreate her mother’s recipes, although having grown up in England, she doesn’t remember much about her native Bangalore. Oddly, tasting her mother’s dishes for the first time in so many years gives her short flashbacks to strange moments in her mother’s life, and she begins to wonder if there’s something her family hasn’t told her.

Then her father decides to remarry again, so Maya returns to Bangalore for the wedding, thinking that while she’s there, she can find her mother’s recipe book. But she also reconnects with a former male friend and discovers the family secret. When she returns to Longyearbyen, she starts “the world’s northernmost Indian supper club”, and from there… well, the sky’s the limit, and you’re never closer to the sky than when you’re at the North Pole.

I loved the portrayal of the Arctic setting, which is richly detailed, but the descriptions of the food Maya cooks are even better, especially those dishes which combine North and South. Here are just a few: Arctic char tikka, reindeer croquettes with tomato chutney, lingonberry pilau, and a dessert of stewed apples topped with crushed pistachios and served with cardamom-infused whipped cream. The food caught my attention (and my stomach) more than the plot did, especially since I guessed what had happened to Maya’s mother, but there are enough unpredictable moments for the story to feel like a realistically bumpy ride.

Finally, the cheery cover made me expect a light-hearted romance, but the book doesn’t actually turn out that way. Yes, Maya meets someone new and enjoys a fling, but given that this guy would have to leave his life in Bangalore behind to be with her, it made sense that they’d go their separate ways and be friends. This was much better than either of them sacrificing everything else for their relationship, and I’ve seen how lonely people can be in the isolation of the High Arctic when their partners are thousands of miles away. So I liked all of this, except for one thing - personally, I can’t stand the word “cum” in a sex scene. Especially as the rest of the scene isn’t written in a similar style, this word stood out in a not-good way.

But on the whole, The Arctic Curry Club was an excellent read. Anyone looking for a story with representation, atmosphere, and lots of sizzling, savory food should try it.

Note: the story contains references to suicide.