Book description
For Emily Pool, India is a magical place where she has the freedom to
escape her mother's suffocating influence. Her days are spent exploring
the canals and gardens of East Bengal, and admiringly observing her
glamorous, dignified neighbours, the Nikolides. But just as the cracks
in Emily's family home are papered over, so do the Pools strive to
maintain an outward impression of respectability, and it is through the
Nikolides that Emily is exposed to a world of adult deceit and
attrition. And when her beloved dog dies, the event forces a
confrontation and reveals to Emily that nothing in the town is quite as
it seems . . . Rumer Godden (1907-98) was the acclaimed author of over
sixty works of fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. Born in
England, she and her siblings grew up in Narayanganj, India, and she
later spent many years living in Calcutta and Kashmir. Several of her
novels were made into films, including
Black Narcissus, The Greengage Summer
and The River
, which was filmed by Jean Renoir. She was appointed OBE in 1993.
