Third in the epic quartet about the end of the Raj: âScott throws us into India, wretched and beautiful . . . His contribution to literature is permanent.â âThe New York Times Book Review
India, 1943: In a regimental hill station, the ladies of Pankot struggle to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a vanishing empire and World War II. A retired missionary, Barbara Batchelor, bears witness to the connections between many human dramasâthe love between Daphne Manner and Hari Kumar; the desperate grief an old teacher feels for an India she cannot rescue; and the cruelty of Captain Ronald Merrick, Susan Laytonâs future husband.
This is the third novel in the Raj Quartet, a series of historical novels that âlimn the Anglo-Indian world with its lovers, friends, family servants, soldiers, businessmen, murderers and suicidesâall involved in one anotherâs fateâ (The New York Times).
âScott has the trick of being sympathetic without ever losing his clearsightedness.â âTimes Literary Supplement