Good short stories are completed in one sitting, yet open up characters, insights and places that entertain and enrich us. Gallois’s collection does this … at her best she is breath-catching. If this engaging collection does not send more Aussies to the subcontinent, very little else will.
Barbara Baker, Courier Mail.
This collection of stories is a stylish debut. Gallois writes with clever economy, giving the reader brisk lessons in culture, history and social anomalies, rarely stalling her narrative in the process … The two strongest pieces – The Colour of Coral and Fatherland – are all about yearning, the former for forbidden love, the latter for an unknown father.
Susan Kurosawa, The Australian.
The most successful stories are those of muted disappointment: ‘The Colour of Coral’, narrated by an elderly Australian who attempts to reach across the cultural divide between herself and her Indian friend, or ‘Box Wallah’, in which a once-respected gentleman suffers deep humiliation after the departure of the British. Gallois is an acute observer and writes in a clean accessible prose … She draws her characters swiftly and efficiently and their stories are told without authorial judgement. An enjoyable collection.
Caroline Lurie, Good Reading.
Her stories are little gems.
Indian Link.
There is a refreshing lack of sentimentality and stereotypes in Gallois’s stories. An individual and confident voice, she often challenges assumptions, sometimes distorting the lens through which the West views ‘India’.
Kabita Dhara, Australian Book Review.
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