Golden Afternoon (Charnwood Library) Book

M.M. Kaye is the internationally acclaimed author of several novels, including The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon. In the first volume of her autobiography, The Sun in the Morning, she recalled her Edenic childhood in colonial India and her enforced exile in a dreary British boarding school. Now in this second volume, Kaye returns to India--the country she brought to life in her best-selling classics--and resurrects a way of living that has long passed. It is 1927, and after studying in England for several miserable and lonely years, nineteen-year-old Mollie Kaye is joyfully reunited with India, the cherished country where she spent her early years. But the enthusiasm that marks her return dampens when she takes her first steps into the intimidating Delhi social scene. Feeling gawky and plain next to her vivacious, intrepid mother, the etiquette of courtship and society's intricate rules fluster her. Seeking refuge from her public awkwardness, Mollie finds comfort in her Indian friends, her sister Bets and her beloved father Tacklow, her growing talent for watercolors, and above all her ongoing love affair with India itself. Kaye's infectious passion for India comes through again and again in Golden Afternoon: she vividly recreates all the richness of the Raj and the complex ceremonies of high-caste Indian life; the thrill and danger of a mugger hunt and a heart-stopping car ride over precipitous roads; and the magic and beauty of a Kashmir spring. The same humor, wisdom, and enchantment that inspired her novels fill the pages of Golden Afternoon. Kaye lovingly and faultlessly captures the nuances of a lifestyle that is no longer--and brings the people and glorious terrain of India to life. Read More