"East of the Sun"

Author: Julia Gregson
Genre: Historical/Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009
Pages: 608
My Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: As the Kaisar-i-Hind weighs anchor for Bombay in the autumn of 1928, its passengers ponder their fate in a distant land. They are part of the "Fishing Fleet" — the name given to the legions of Englishwomen who sail to India each year in search of husbands, heedless of the life that awaits them. The inexperienced chaperone Viva Holloway has been entrusted to watch over three unsettling charges. There's Rose, as beautiful as she is naïve, who plans to marry a cavalry officer she has met a mere handful of times. Her bridesmaid, Victoria, is hell-bent on losing her virginity en route before finding a husband of her own. And shadowing them all is the malevolent presence of a disturbed schoolboy named Guy Glover. From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of Tamarind Street, from the sooty streets of London to the genteel conversation of the Bombay Yacht Club, East of the Sun is graced with lavish detail and a penetrating sensitivity — historical fiction at its greatest.

Review: A seriously good book. I'm not sure how I got drawn in because it's not like anything super exciting happens, but this is like a good sitcom or drama. I think it speaks to the author as a writer. A good writer can draw you in with the most mundane of topicis - although as you will see in this book, there is nothing mundane about India in the 1920s. In East of the Sun, the characters develop, the story line develops, and the next thing I knew I didn't want to put it down. However, I don't have a single chunk of time in which to devote 608 pages of reading so I did have to put it down. Then I found myself thinking about the characters and their lives at different points throughout the day. Although I don't know much about India and certainly not life in the 1920s, it feels very authentic.