Sister India Book Review

 

 

The exotic and suspenseful New York Times Notable Book that tells the story of an eccentric guest-house keeper in Varanasi, India, and the passions evoked by her sacred city along the Ganges

The Lonely Planet recommends the Saraswati Guest House, and meeting Madame Natraja, "a one-woman blend of East and West," as well worth a side trip. Over the course of a weekend, several guests turn up, shocked to encounter a three-hundred-some-pound, surly white woman in a sari. Then a series of Hindu-Muslim murders leads to a citywide curfew, and they unwittingly become her captives. So begins a period of days blending into nights as Natraja and her Indian cook become entangled in a web of religious violence, and their guests fall under the spell of this ancient kingdom--at once enthralled and repelled by the begging children, the public funeral pyres, the holy men bathing in the Ganges at dawn. This is a traveler's tale, a story about the strange chemistry that develops from unexpected intimacies on foreign ground. And Peggy Payne's extraordinary talent vividly conjures up the smells of the perfume market, the rhythms of holy men chanting at dawn, the claustrophobic feel of this ancient city's tiny lanes, and the magic of the setting sun over the holy Ganges. For anyone who has harbored a secret desire to go to India and be transformed, Sister India, called "mesmerizing" by Gail Harris and "a modern version of E. M. Forster's classic A Passage to India" by Dan Wakefield, takes you on this journey without ever leaving home.

 

This isn't the type of book I would usually pick up and read so when I was given the chance to read and review it, I jumped on the opportunity. I don't want to give away the book and plot but I do have to say that once you pick it up, you really get in to it. The characters are exotic and keep you wanting more. The way she describe everything as you are reading makes you think that you are traveling throughout India with the sights and smells of the country. I couldn't put down the book because it was that good. There were a few parts that I felt were not really necessary (as in not for kids to read) but it made it interesting for the reader. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a new novel to pick up that you wouldn't necessarily grab.

 

You can purchase this on AMAZON