Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Sandalwood Tree
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:

 

Reviewed 2011
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