Ruthnum begins his examination of what he calls “currybooks”—writing by South Asian writers who live far from their own or their parents’ home countries—by invoking the experience of savoring curried in restaurants, then cookbooks, then diasporic novels infused with nostalgia and longing. Ruthnum’s aim is to tease out where South Asian writers in English succeed in developing their own unique voices and where their work is shaped by White expectations of a “Brown” experience (as he calls it). If the first curry chefs in Britain adjusted their recipes to White diners’ tastes, until the dishes would have been unrecognizable at home, is a similar phenomenon brought to bear on writers? His genuine interest in food and film and writing makes this slim book fascinating. His book is ultimately less a critique of race expectations and more a call for writers to strive for particularity and being true to themselves.