Book Club — Heat and Dust
In July, the Primrose Hill Community Library Book Club will be discussing Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala skilfully weaves two parallel stories set in India, one in the present and the other in the days of British rule.
In 1920s India, Olivia – a beautiful, spoiled and deeply bored English colonial wife – is drawn inexorably to a minor Indian prince. Eventually she outrages the tiny, suffocating town where her husband is a civil servant when she elopes with the captivating Nawab. This is also the story of Olivia’s step-granddaughter who, 50 years later, is drawn to India by her fascination with the letters left behind by the now dead woman, and by her obsession with solving the enigma of Olivia’s scandal.