From the bestselling author of the Richard and Judy Book Club summer read, East of the Sun, Julia Gregson returns with this compelling love story set in India - perfect for fans of The Tea Planter's Wife.
Oxfordshire, 1947. Exhausted by the war and nursing a tragic secret, Kit Smallwood flees to Wickam Farm to recuperate. There she throws herself into helping Daisy set up a charity sending midwives to India. Daisy's plan is fraught with danger. With newly-acquired Independence, many of India's people furiously resent the English for withdrawing so quickly, blaming them for the riots that left millions dead. When Kit meets Anto, a handsome, complicated but charming trainee doctor nearing the end of his English education, she falls utterly in love. Anto makes her laugh and marriage should be the easiest thing in the world. But when he informs his family that he is shortly to return home with an English bride, his parents are appalled. Despite being Anglo-Indian herself, Kit's own mother is equally horrified. She has spent most of her life trying to erase a painful past and losing her daughter to an Indian man is her worst fear realized. As they journey to a new life in India, Kit begins to realize the seriousness of what she has undertaken. Thrown into the heart of a traditional Indian family in a rapidly changing world, Kit has much to learn about the nature of home and the depth of her love for Anto.
Julia Gregson is the prize-winning author of three novels, one book of non-fiction, and several short stories. Her novel, EAST OF THE SUN, was chosen for the Richard and Judy TV Book Club and became a SUNDAY TIMES bestseller in the UK. It won Romantic Novel of the Year and the Prince Maurice Prize and has since been translated into more than twenty languages. Previously a journalist, for the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, THE TIMES, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, and ROLLING STONE in the USA, she is married and lives in Wales.
