New Reads: East of the Sun

[Rachel-K]

Three young British women and an expelled British schoolboy take a first class cruise to India in 1928. Viva Holloway, after growing up an orphan, is acting as chaperon to her companions and is returning to India to collect a few things left by her parents. Rose Whetherby is traveling to marry an officer she barely knows, and her best friend, Tor, who accompanies her, is desperate to get out from under a cruel mother and to meet a man who will "seize" her and sweep her off her feet. Guy Glover has been asked to leave his school, and is being sent home to his parents. British rule in India is quickly disintegrating while many of the British expatriates living there doggedly ignore the growing dangers.

This is a beautifully written novel and a gripping story, both for it's characters and for it's larger context of allowing us a glimpse at "British" India in the late 1920s.

It also won Romantic Novel of the Year in the UK.

Please help me welcome Julia Gregson to the discussion boards!

[Paul_Hochman]

Here's a brief bio of Julia:

Julia Gregson has worked as a journalist and a foreign correspondent in the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. Her second novel, East of the Sun will be published by Touchstone in June 2009. It was a major bestseller in the UK in 2008 and won the Romantic Novel of the Year Prize. Her short stories have been published in collections and magazines and read on the radio. She lives in Monmouthshire, England.

[libralady]

I just came across this book this weekend when browsing the B&N website.  I was drawn in and I ordered it.  It will be here on Wednesday, July 8.  I plan to jump right in as soon as I get it. Hopefully, I will not be too far behind and will be able to get in on some of the discussion.    It sounds like a really good summer read.

[vivico1]

Hey Libra, welcome. I think you will like the book and you are probably one of those who can read 600 pages in a weekend huh lol. I have to read about 30 pages at a time so it takes me awhile but its a well paced book. Jump in when your book comes!

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libralady wrote:

I just came across this book this weekend when browsing the B&N website. I was drawn in and I ordered it. It will be here on Wednesday, July 8. I plan to jump right in as soon as I get it. Hopefully, I will not be too far behind and will be able to get in on some of the discussion. It sounds like a really good summer read.

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[pooja84]

The East of Sun Novle by Julia Gregson is fabulous.In this novel you will find Three young women named-Rose, Victoria and Viva are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind.Each of them has their own reason for leaving their homeland but the hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what lies ahead in India.