Colonial India: The Saga of an Anglo-Indian Family

About the Book

It is a partially autobiographical novel about an upper-class Anglo-American family in former British India. The story of the novel moves round the weddings, betrayals, and intrigues between the glitter of the Anglo-American jet-set society and the fascinating yet puzzling Indian world.

After a powerful critical work centered on the dramatic situation of both Indian and Chinese girls, sacrificed to the male dominance of these societies, Gwendolyn Simpson Chabrier is back with a partially autobiographical novel, set in colonial India before Independence. The main character and narrative voice of this novel is Romaine, the daughter of a resolute and beautiful American heiress, who arrives in Bombay looking for a rich husband. Through Romaine's eyes, the novel describes personal issues and key historical events, private vices and public virtues, luxuries and miseries unfold and intertwine, inexorably punctuated by the difficult and often painful search for the roots of this young woman. Initially, torn between East and West, Romaine chooses unconditionally the India of her half-brother and stepfather, and becomes a part of the Nehru family and their unconditional love for her.