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Historical Fiction · ThoughtfulA woman retraces her step-grandmother's scandalous life in 1920s India
Heat and Dust
1975181 pagesEasy readSteady pace
★ Booker Prize, 1975
Two Englishwomen in India, fifty years apart
An unnamed narrator goes to India in the 1970s to learn about Olivia, her step-grandmother, who scandalised the British community in the 1920s by leaving her husband for a local prince. As she reads Olivia's letters, her own story starts to mirror the earlier one. It was adapted as a 1983 Merchant Ivory film.
More about this book
Who
The narrator and Olivia, the wife of a British civil servant.
World
India in the 1920s and in the 1970s.
What makes it different
It moves between two time periods and shows both women through one place.
Feel
Sensuous and cool.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Heat and DustWikipedia