Shona Patel

A young Indian woman joins her new husband on a tea plantation in the jungles of Assam where she struggles to manage a staff of servants and socialize with British wives in a colonial society at the dawn of the Second World War. Original.

Teatime for the Firefly

1870s India. In a tiny village where society is ruled by a caste system and women are defined solely by marriage, young Biren Roy dreams of forging a new destiny. When his mother suffers the fate of widowhood--shunned by her loved ones and forced to live in solitary penance--Biren devotes his life to effecting change. Just when his vision for the future begins to look hopeless, he meets Maya, the independent-minded daughter of a local educator, and his soul is reignited.

Flame Tree Road

1940's India. During this volatile and transitional time in the country's fight for independence, Layla is astrologically doomed never to marry. Manik's career and arranged marriage were charted for success. But by cleverly manipulating the hand fortune has dealt her, Layla has found love with Manik. Layla's life as a newly married woman takes her away from home and into the jungles of Assam, where the world's finest tea thrives on plantations run by native labor and British efficiency. Fascinated by this culture of whiskey-soaked expats who seem fazed by neither earthquakes nor man-eating leopards, she struggles to find her place among the prickly English wives with whom she is expected to socialize, and the peculiar servants she now finds under her charge.

Jason Mott

Elaine Hussey

Paula Treick Deboard

Antoinette Van Heugten

Suzanne And Loretta Hayes And Nyhan

Anyone who is part of a book club is very familiar with this constant question: What should we read next? Whether your club wants to travel back in time to exotic locations, or prefers to wrestle with big issues in a contemporary setting, this sampler of six extraordinary novels has something for every book club: The Returned by Jason Mott, I'll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan, Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel, The Sweetest Hallelujah by Elaine Hussey, The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette van Heugten and The Mourning Hours by Paula Treick DeBoard. Each excerpt is accompanied by a letter from the novel's editor explaining why the book is a perfect book club pick. There is also bonus material to enrich your discussions, including reading guides and author conversations. So, read on, enjoy, find the perfect book and be the star of your book club.

The Next Page - A Fiction Sampler for Book Clubs

Paula Treick DeBoard

Antoinette van Heugten

Anyone who is part of a book club is very familiar with this constant question: What should we read next? Whether your club wants to travel back in time to exotic locations, or prefers to wrestle with big issues in a contemporary setting, this sampler of six extraordinarynovels has something for every book club: The Returned by Jason Mott, I'll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan, Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel, The Sweetest Hallelujah by Elaine Hussey, The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette van Heugten and The Mourning Hours by Paula Treick DeBoard. Each excerpt is accompanied by a letter from the novel's editor explaining why the book is a perfect book club pick. There is also bonus material to enrich your discussions, including reading guides and author conversations. So, read on, enjoy, find the perfect book and be the star of your book club.

Shona Patel

Books

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