Julia Gregson - East of The Sun

Reviewed by Barbara Simpson July 09
(A Richard & Judy's Summer Read). Having just read this authors first novel, The Water Horse, and been greatly disappointed by its anti-climatic ending, I picked up East of the Sun with some trepidation but I am glad to say I was immediately drawn to the narrative.
It is autumn 1928. three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be is anxious about leaving her family to marry a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid, couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother and is determined to find a husband for herself. Viva, their inexperienced chaperon, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom. Viva is also in charge of a deeply troubled boy who has been expelled from his boarding school and is unwillingly returned to his parents.
The voyage to India is beautifully described as is the effect of that country on all the characters whose own stories are revealed gradually as the book progresses. The girls come over as completely recognisable characters for whom it is impossible not to feel sympathy and liking.
Being set in the time when Ghandi was beginning his crusade to secure independence from British rule, the reader gets a real sense of the unrest and imminent danger that is prevalent.
The ending of this book is not at all an anti-climax and I am very pleased to have read it. A very good and satisfying summer(and any other season) read!