Library Loot

This week's loot!

Daughters of India, by Jill McGivering:   "Isabel, born into the British Raj, and Asha, a young Hindu girl, both consider India their home. Through mischance and accident their stories intersect and circumstances will bring them from the bustling city of Delhi to the shores of the Andaman Islands, from glittering colonial parties to the squalor and desperation of a notorious prison; and into the lives of men on opposing sides of the fight for self-government"

I'm always on the lookout for historical fiction set in places I've never been.  

At Least We Lived: the Unlikely Adventures of an English Couple in WWII China, by  Emma Oxford.  Pretty much what the subtitle says.  A young Englishwoman goes to China in 1943, meets and marries an Englishman who had escaped from Japanese-controlled Hong Kong. Written by their daughter.   






Library Loot is courtesy of The Captive Reader

Library Loot

 Loot from the last few weeks:


Kurinji Flowers, by Clare Flynn.  "Set in South India during World War II and India's struggle for independence, Kurinji Flowers traces a young woman’s journey through loss, loneliness, hope, and betrayal to unexpected love and self-discovery."   I can't say I cared for the last quarter of the the book, but the first 3/4ths were quite good.  Strong sense of place, strong plot. Terrible cover.







The Outcasts of Time, by Ian Mortimer.  "December 1348. With the country in the grip of the Black Death, brothers John and William fear that they will shortly die and go to Hell. But as the end draws near, they are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world, or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries – living each one of their remaining days ninety-nine years after the last."   Requires suspension of disbelief; an interesting idea that I didn't feel was really as well developed as it could have been.  Still, well-written and worth the time.  Gorgeous cover.





Library Loot courtesy of The Captive Reader

Historical Fiction at its Finest

Title: Zemindar

Author: Valerie Fitzgerald
Edition: Bantam Books (paperback), 1983
Setting: 1857 India
Genre: Historical Fiction

Valerie Fitzgerald wrote only one book. But what a book it is. Don't be deceived by the paperback's romance novel cover: “Zemindar” is historical fiction at its finest.

Set in India at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny (also referred to as the Indian Rebellion or the First War of Indian Independence) in 1857, this is the story of an English spinster and poor relation, Laura Hewitt, who accompanies her newly-married cousin Emily and Emily's husband, Charles, on a honeymoon trip to India. It seems that Charles is related to a zemindar, a wealthy landowner in India named Oliver Erskine and since Mr. Erskine is childless, hopes to be named his heir. The relationship between these four people is complicated: Laura believes herself to be in love with Charles, Charles' and Emily's marriage is unhappy, and Oliver Erskine? Well, he's enigmatic. Slowly, Laura finds herself less and less enamored of Charles and more interested in Oliver.

It is during the honeymoon stay at Erskine's estate that the Mutiny breaks out. They escape to the Residency at Lucknow and join the many who are beseiged there. The hardships, fear, brutality and death during the Mutiny change each of Fitzgerald's characters. And they are superb characters: besides the four main characters who run the gamut from spoiled and shallow to strong and colorful, she gives us Toddy Bob, Oliver's Cockney servant; Kate, a tough but kind wife of an army officer; Moti, Oliver's Indian mistress, and many other vivid characters.

The author's grandmother lived through the Mutiny and that the author lived in Lucknow during WWII; her description of India (Erskine's estate, Hassanganj, and the Residency at Lucknow in particular) is superb, filled with detail that is included not for the sake of showing us how much research she has done, but to illuminate her story.

This is a sweeping, vivid book that reaches a deeply satisfying conclusion. It's long (almost 800 pages), so set aside some time to enjoy this superb novel, which has only recently been made available as a Kindle book.