The year is 1942. The world is at war. The Japanese are in Burma. India, while still part of the English Raj, is feeling the beginnings of revolution. In the middle of this simmering scenario is a love story so well told and integrated into the historical detail that I wasn't bored for one moment. The book's narrative takes shape in the form of a young American woman discovering her history when an old trunk arrives on her 21st birthday. As she reads the enclosed letter, the reader is transported back in time.
Mila is a young Indian woman who is torn between two loves, one for the Prince who it is expected she will marry, and one for the strange American soldier who comes in to her life. He is searching for his brother who is imprisoned in India but all of this must be kept secret. Mila's father is a diplomat employed by the English, her younger brother is attracted to the seeds of Indian revolution and her older brother mistakenly thinks that the English are his friends.
This book is more than the sum of the plot and the lush setting however. And even though I have read some non-fiction about the British rule in India, those were just facts. This book made me actually "feel" it, especially from an Indian point of view. There was a lot of dependence on the servant class. And the roles of both men and women were starting to change in small ways. The author brought out how it felt for Indians to be dominated by the English and how prejudice disempowered them. Before a dust storm there is silence, and this fact is carefully interwoven in the theme of the book. The reader is not spared the horror of war however; there were parts of the book that made me cringe. The love story between the couple was done well, but the story of India and its people were what glued my eyes to the page.
Once started, this book is hard to put down. It's about life and love and a time and a place that will forever live in my mind. And there were also several surprises throughout which anchored my interest even more. Highly recommended.
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