Book description
A quirky, much-loved novel about a return home, a past love affair and
an elephant. "It is many years since I turned the pages of the
little book I wrote for the holy man, and the ivory covers creak as I
open on the story of how I went to India . . . As my voice ascends, thin
as the song of a lark, I see again the black eyes of the holy man,
irises flecked with gold as he hands me the pen and paper. 'Oh sing to
me, dreamer,' he said, and I began to write." Back home as she
sorts out her deceased Mother's estate, Margaret Harris reflects on her
time in India as mistress to a Maharajah. But there are many things that
she has to confront in the present - her bullying lawyer, the aggressive
neighbour, and the spectre of her failed relationship with her mother.
Shonagh Koea s notable writing career met with early success in a
Woman s Weekly writing contest, in which (aged eight) she won two
guineas. She went on to become a journalist and to win the Air New
Zealand Short Story Award, and more recently to write three short story
collections as well as seven novels. Of the novels, Sing to Me, Dreamer
was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards and The Lonely Margins of
the Sea was runner-up for the Deutz Medal for Fiction. Shonagh Koea has
also held the University of Auckland Fellowship in Literature and the
Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship.
