THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A haunting, tender portrait of a woman forced to choose between her duty as a wife and her instinct as a mother...
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper steps off a steamer in Ceylon, Sri Lanka full of optimism, eager to join her new husband. But the man who greets her at the tea plantation is not the same one she fell in love with in London.
Distant and brooding, Laurence spends long days wrapped up in his work, leaving his young bride to explore alone. It's a place filled with clues to the past - locked doors, a yellowed wedding dress in a dusty trunk, an overgrown grave, far too small for an adult...
Gwen soon falls pregnant and her husband is overjoyed, but she has little time to celebrate. In the delivery room the new mother is faced with a terrible choice. When the time comes, how will her husband ever understand what she has done?
'A truly absorbing book' Reader Review
'So many twists and turns. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next' Reader Review
'It takes you continuously into new places' Reader Review
'The writer creates the scene with such colour' Reader Review
Imprint: Penguin
Published: 03/09/2015
ISBN: 9780241969564
Length: 448 Pages
RRP: £7.99
My ideal read; mystery, love, heart-break and joy - I couldn't put it down
Beautifully written and heart rending, this has a magical setting with a real sense of period.
A gloriously atmospheric and tension-filled novel that centres on the separation of a mother and her child. Immensely enjoyable, poignant and compelling
Vibrant and compelling - Dinah Jefferies perfectly captures the flavour of colonial Ceylon
I was spellbound from beginning to end
A wonderful book, deeply touching and an unforgettable read that swept me away. I loved it.
Dark secrets lie at every turn, hidden beneath layers of 1920s racism and the fearfulness of a crumbling colonial power, making for a thoroughly gripping tale. But what I loved most of all. . . is the moving way in which Dinah writes about the loss of children and the redemptive power of love.
A terrific emotional and atmospheric read
Deeply atmospheric and utterly engrossing
Rich and incredibly evocative, historical fiction at its best...it's just spellbinding