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If an authors success is measured in the verisimilitude of the world she creates,then the achievement of Nayana Currimbhoys delightful debut novel,Miss Timmins School for Girls.

A boarding-school story that delightfully breaks all stereotypes

If an authors success is measured in the verisimilitude of the world she creates,then the achievement of Nayana Currimbhoys delightful debut novel,Miss Timmins School for Girls (HarperCollins,Rs 399),lies in its recreations of many little universes. Currimbhoy skilfully creates the three societies that Charu Apte,21,belongs to the small world of her family in Indore,where she plays chess with her father; the self-absorbed world of Miss Timmins School for Girls in Panchgani,which believes that British was Better and where she teaches English to senior girls; and the seventies world of drugs,sex and rock n roll,which Charu inhabits after school hours with a group of Nabokov-reading companions. Charu makes friends and adversaries with her students,finds love in a woman and then a man,and learns the truth of her parents past.

The death of a teacher on campus provides a twist to an already engaging tale. The murder makes it a pageturner,giving the self-proclaimed Rule Breakers a chance to play Agatha Christie during school year,but the coming-of-age story of Charu remains in the spotlight.

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Charu spends her early years in a sunlit Bombay apartment that smells of the sea. But when her navy officer father is court-martialled,they leave their perfect life for a one-bedroom life in Indore. A mysterious blot appears just above the lip,a little to the right. For years,her parents try every treatment,but the blot remains,expanding and shrinking and sliding depending on the situations that Charu finds herself in. It is my Rorshach blot; I had a whole science of judging character by the way people first looked at me in those days, she says.

Most boarding-school tales enjoy a readership of those who hope to study at one,those studying at one,or those with an odd nostalgia for bad food and close friendships. Miss Timmins School for Girls,though,will appeal to anyone looking for a quick,fun read. Told largely through the words of a teacher,it moves beyond typical boarding-school themes.