I just read A Black Englishman and I think I am officially done with books about India and the Raj by white people.

Full disclosure: I am trying to whittle down some of the insane book stacks in my house and I don't know how long this book has been there. And the introductory note about how the book was based on the author's grandparent who was institutionalized both in India and in England after Independence hooked me. But it's such an icky mix of exoticism and wish fulfillment, not to mention the fact that the narrator seemed much more 1990s than 1920s. And the novel has this total happy ending where there should have been no happy ending anywhere in sight so I just felt manipulated and slightly complicit. ( )

Isabel's man does not return from WW1, so to get away from it all, she marries a low ranked army officer due to return to India. She quickly realises the mistake she has made and falls for Sam, the England-educated local doctor.

This is partially based on the life of the author's grandmother, and as ever, you are left wondering where fiction starts and fact ends. ( )

A fabulous, intelligent and moving epic love story. A young Englishwoman falls in love with an English-educated Indian doctor.

India, 1920. Un país exótico, diferente y voluptuoso que lucha por liberarse de la garra colonial británica. Isabel, joven y recién casada, llega huyendo de la dolorosa huella que la Gran Guerra ha dejado en su vida. Ahí se dejará arrastrar a una apasionada y peligrosa relación con Samresh, un doctor indio educado en Oxford que vive en una profunda encrucijada. El exotismo, los conflictos raciales y políticos, la sed de venganza y los exuberantes paisajes se funden en esta hermosa novela ambientada en los últimos días del Raj. ( )

Ugh, a horrible beginning, truly. The meeting between Isabel and the "love of her life," Sam, is ill planned and unbelievable. I almost stoppped reading the book 30 pages in.

But I stuck with the novel because I am interested in Indian history, and Slaughter's writing is moving and graceful. And my loyalty paid off -- a lovely, hopeful novel. ( )