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East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

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diamondlil
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East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

Post by diamondlil » Mon November 24th, 2008, 10:26 am

Summer 1928. The Kaiser-i-Hind is en route to Bombay. In Cabin D38, Viva Holloway, an inexperienced chaperone, is worried she's made a terrible mistake. Her advert in The Lady has resulted in three unsettling charges to be escorted to India.

Rose, a beautiful, dangerously naive English girl, is about to be married to the cavalry officer she has met only a handful of times. Victoria, her bridesmaid, is determined to lose her virginity on the journey, before finding a husband of her own in India. And overshadowing all three of them, the malevolent presence of Guy Glover, a strange and disturbed schoolboy.

Three potential Memsahibs with a myriad of reasons for leaving England, but the cargo of hopes and secrets they carry has done little to prepare them for what lies ahead.

From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of the orphans on Tamarind Street, East of the Sun is everything a historical novel should be: alive with glorious detail, fascinating characters and masterful storytelling.
Normally when I see a book mentioned somewhere and it prompts me to add it to my TBR list, I try to write it down on my list, so that I can thank the person who recommended the read. For some reason, when I added this book to my list I didn't do it, and it's a real shame, because I would love to say a hearty THANK YOU to whoever it was.

The book opens with Viva Holloway. She is a young woman with great spirit, great secrets, but unfortunately not great means. She spent many of her formative years in India before she was sent back to school in the UK, and now she longs to return to India - ostensibly to take ownership of a trunk of her dead parents possessions that is being held in trust for her by an old family friend. It does also give her a chance to run away from a disastrous love affair.

The only way she can get to India though is to act as a chaperone to three young people. Rose is on her way to India to get married to a dashing soldier by the name of Jack. She has only met him a few times, but she is excitedly planning a life with him, having no real idea about life in India or about what to expect from marriage, especially as a soldiers wife. Accompanying her is her friend Victoria, known to everyone as Tor, who is going to be her bridesmaid, and hopefully to find herself a husband whilst she is at it. The third person that Viva has to chaperone is a young man of 16 years age called Guy Glover, who has been dismissed from his English school and is returning back to India to be with his parents.

From the start it is clear that there are going to be issues, and so it proves to be. Whilst it is not all plain sailing (sorry, bad pun!), we are also given a glimpse into the life of board for young ladies of the day as they attend parties, make new friends, stop off in Port Said and do a quick trip to Cairo, as the weather warms up and they all sleep on deck - men on one side and women on the other thank you very much.

The journeys that our characters take are very much individual. Along the way we meet up with the rich and bored memsahibs who are only interested in their own lives, the early days of marriage to a stranger for Rose, the search for a husband for the less than confident Tor, and for Viva, a life where she is struggling to make ends meet and therefore has to take up work in a local orphanage and therefore gets to see first hand the poverty, the joy and the conflicts amongst the locals. For those days in India are leading up to the end of British Colonial rule and therefore it is not all swigging G and T's at the club for those people who have chosen to make their lives in a far off land.

There is a great joy in the reading of this book. It's not great literature, but there are times when what you want is an absorbing read that you can get lost in, as opposed to something that you have to think really hard about all the time! There are a few times when the narrative loses a little bit of smoothness, but I was fully invested in the characters, in the setting and in the story and so it didn't really bother me at all.

Reading this book also made me think about my grandmother's life. She made the journey from the UK in the 1930s, not to India, but to Australia. I am pretty sure that she travelled with her family and not as a single woman, but we have talked a bit before about getting off the boat in Egypt. One time when I was at her house, she even got out some things that she had kept from the boat trip over - including a few menus and things. It's fair to say that the food that we eat today has changed a lot from what was served up in those days. If it wasn't for the fact that I live so far away from her, I would have been around to her house to look through all that information again!

This book is apparently one of Richard and Judy's Summer Reads (a big deal in the UK - somewhat similar to getting chosen to be a Oprah book club book) and doesn't seem to have been released in places like the US yet, but I am really glad that my library had it. I have now requested this author's first book, called The Water Horse, and I am very much looking forward to reading it. Another book that I remember reading which featured a similar story about travelling by ship to a different life that I enjoyed was Jojo Moyes' Ship of Brides.

A very interesting read, set in a very interesting location in very interesting times, and a joy to read.


If you are interested in hearing a little more from the author, there is an interview with her posted at The Book Depository. Click here to read it!
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Post by diamondlil » Sat February 14th, 2009, 12:03 pm

This book won the UK Romantic Novelist Association Romantic Novel of the Year award this year.

I had read one of the other contenders as well, but definitely agree that this was the better book! I really enjoyed this one.
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Post by EC2 » Sat February 14th, 2009, 12:09 pm

I tend on principle not to read anything that Richard & Judy recommend (bah humbug) but I think I may just make an exception of this one. I had heard it had won the RNA award, but again, although I'm a member of the RNA, I've been that busy, it's all passed me by a bit this time round. I will definitely put this on my TBR now though.
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For never will cowards fall down there.'

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Sheramy
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Post by Sheramy » Mon June 22nd, 2009, 7:04 pm

I'm a little past halfway now on this one, and I think it's great. It's a particularly good example of how to do setting and description well: she nicely shows the reader the two sides of 1920s India -- the India the British residents see, and the India beyond the Raj. The characters are absorbing. I've stayed up last the past few nights on it!
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Post by Anna Elliott » Mon June 22nd, 2009, 11:23 pm

I highly recommend it, too--I finished it last week and loved both the language and the storytelling. Great read!

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new book: Dark Moon of Avalon, coming Sept 14 from Simon &Schuster (Touchstone)

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Post by Divia » Tue June 23rd, 2009, 2:44 am

It was in my bag from the conference and I look forward to reading it :)

Great review. Thanks.
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Post by Eigon » Tue June 30th, 2009, 7:49 pm

Good heavens! I've just sold some books to Julia Gregson! She's researching Cairo and area in 1942 (so if the maps are wrong, it's my fault!)

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Post by EC2 » Tue June 30th, 2009, 8:16 pm

Eigon, what a small world!
I'm just reading East of the Sun at the moment and enjoying it. I also notice she wrote The Water Horse - I just love the film!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Post by diamondlil » Tue June 30th, 2009, 9:06 pm

Different Water Horse.

Her Water Horse is set in the Crimean war and was again excellent.
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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

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Post by EC2 » Tue June 30th, 2009, 9:34 pm

[quote=""diamondlil""]Different Water Horse.

Her Water Horse is set in the Crimean war and was again excellent.[/quote]

Oh, thanks for that! I hadn't realised! :o :o I wonder if she ever gets asked about that!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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