The literary sphere in our multicultural world can sometimes seem like a gathering of representatives. Some writers aim to be ambassadors of their cultures for express consumption by readers who aren’t familiar with them. These foreign authors, even if writing in English, must perform a self-conscious translation of unfamiliar foods, words, gestures, and even emotions.

” Dropped from Heaven ” (Schocken, 243 pages, $23), by Sophie Judah, is a collection of 19 stories about the Bene Israel community in India. Ms. Judah, who was born in India in 1949 and has been living in Israel since 1972, makes her fictional debut by confronting her ambassadorial role head-on. In a short introduction to the collection, she clarifies some of the basic facts behind her tales, and mentions that there has been very little fiction written about the Bene Israel.

The Bene Israel are said to have belonged to one of the lost tribes of Israel. Living for centuries on India’s Konkan Coast, they had no communication with Jews in the rest of the world, but observed Jewish laws such as kashrut and Shabbat. Ms. Judah clarifies that her stories are set in an invented town, Jwalanagar, but they draw on her own experiences as an Indian Jew.

The collection is divided into three sections: one spanning between 1890 and 1930, the next between 1930 and 1964, and the last between 1965 and 2000. The first section consists of only two stories, which ease the reader into the community rather than formally introducing it. The middle section refers mainly to experiences during Partition, while the last stories confront the dispersal of the community as most of its members depart for Israel.

As a cultural artifact, “Dropped From Heaven” is invaluable. It succeeds as a rounded portrait of a community few know about, and even fewer know from Ms. Judah’s intimate perspective. She chronicles the unique traditions of the Bene Israel, from their use of black grape sherbet for Kiddush to their particular debates about the application of the laws of kashrut.

The stories fare less well on the level of lyricism. They are frank and straightforward, but almost simplistic, more than once resorting to a child’s voice or point of view. Ms. Judah uses very few complex descriptions, and rarely changes her tone. That tone is not exactly stilted, but emotionally and descriptively, it’s certainly not lush. More often, the impact of the stories comes from the understated accumulation of tragic events. Ms. Judah’s lyric reticence serves her best when she’s describing the sudden death of a beloved husband, or the bemused suffering of a Hindu child refugee. The result is that while some of the lighter tales fall flat, the ones with weightier subject matter can be truly poignant.

The more successful stories are also told from outsiders’ perspectives. This is the most natural means for Ms. Judah to display her familiarity with Bene Israel traditions. In “My Son, Jude Paul,” a priest narrates the life of his foundling son. The boy, who was the abandoned child of a Jewish man and a Christian woman, becomes a vehicle for Ms. Judah to explore the relationship between compassion and religious tradition. Jude Paul tries to decide if he will recite the kaddish for the father who cruelly left him. The decision is heartrending, and his priestly father does not approve. Later, Jude Paul becomes an army officer during Partition and features as a recurring figure in other stories in the collection. His position as outsider allows Ms. Judah to explore the cruelties committed across religions in the name of the divine.

The final series of stories follows the return visit of a group of Bene Israel descendants from Israel. This series delineates some wonderfully complex tensions between those who stayed and those who went away. Of particular note is “Old Man Moses,” the story of a young Israeli woman who helps her boyfriend make peace with his cantankerous Indian grandfather. Ms. Judah combines respect for tradition with understanding of the unjust strictures that tradition can place on the individual, especially in light of contemporary Western morality and civil rights.

“Dropped from Heaven” provides a series of informative and sometimes beautiful glimpses into a largely lost way of life that is likely foreign to most readers. But as much as one can admire Ms. Judah’s narrative restraint, from an ambassador of a transplanted culture, one wants to hear a voice as rich as the content it portrays.

Ms. Kaminski is a writer living in New York.