Book Review: 17 Morris Road by Parul Sharma

Sneha Pathak reviews Parul Sharma’s 17 Morris Road (Published by Hachette India, 2024) calling it a relatable read.

Parul Sharma’s 17, Morris Road is dedicated to all of us 80s kids, and rightly so. For walking on 17, Morris Road is travelling through those memory lanes where all of us 80s – and 90s – kids have our own Arbour Houses intact. This is the fourth novel by Singapore-based Sharma, whose previous three works Bringing up Vasu, By the Watercooler, and Tuki’s Grand Salon Chase were all published by Westland Books. 

The novel follows the story of Gayatri Trivedi or Gaya, who is at a pivotal point in her life. Raising her only son has been the biggest purpose of her life for the past eighteen years despite her many failed attempts at doing other things,  and he is leaving for college abroad. Unsure of what her future holds and quite unable to decide what she should fill her future life with, she gets an invitation to travel to one of the most beloved places of her childhood, Arbour House in Dehradun. Inviting her to this land of memories is her one-time crush, Shivendra Rawat aka Koko. On a whim, she decides to visit Dehradun, which is also travelling towards her past self, to a time when Gaya was a sixteen-year-old girl. This period which she spent with her friends Koko, Bubbles, Sukh, Inder, and Niru, and her experiences with them makes for the bulk of the story. By the end, though, Gayatri has to clear the fog of nostalgia and make a decision whether she wants to stay with the past or move on to newer summits.