Elle Newmark
author
Doubleday (Transworld
UK)
24 February 2011/ ISBN 9780385615426
General Fiction/Historical 1847 and 1957 India
Amazon
US
|| UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Lonely Evie Mitchell
arrives in the Indian hill village of Masoorla with her shell-shocked
husband, Martin, and their lively young son, Billy. Martin’s
recent war experiences have left him distant and difficult to live
with, and Evie finds herself mostly on her own trying to patch up
their once-close relationship. By chance she comes upon a packet
of letters between two women exactly a hundred years earlier and
begins to piece together their lives. As she does so she unearths
some secrets that have an impact on her own life.
This is the sort of book that sucks the reader in and holds on until
the final page. There are several reasons for this. The instantly
involving narrative of Evie, the exotic location, the adventures
of Felicity and Adela told both in letters, diaries and third person
all combine to add spice and variety. Inside these covers you can
find more than one type of love story, exploration of the themes
of race relations, motherhood and friendship and our fascination
with genealogy and the past all packed into one highly readable
package. India comes to life in here, seen both through Evie’s
and Adela’s eyes (Felicity remains rather more elusive), and
the differences and similarities between the two time periods are
well drawn. There seems to be quite a vogue for novels about our
interest with the secrets of the past at the moment, but this is
surely one of the better ones. It manages to avoid merely retelling
the story of the Indian Mutiny, instead describing life in India
at the time. Anybody who can neatly avoid a cliché always
gets my vote, and this is an enjoyable book on so many levels.
Reviewer's
Note:
|