Peacocks Dancing

by SharonMaas (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.21

  Rita Maraj is born into an Indian family and raised in Guyana. With a beautiful stepsister and a socially ambitious stepmother, she feels like Cinderella in a society where girls are expected to marry early and on command. Her refusal to do so makes her a distinct oddity. But the arrival of a messenger from the former Maharani of Khandapurnam, a distant relative, is to change her destiny forever. She must set out to India to help tempt the heir apparent back from the religious sect he has joined. The journey is to lead her and her stepsister through the brothels of Bombay, where the younger the girl and the paler the skin, the higher the price. They encounter the old-fashioned drawing rooms of high society, the temples and hospitals of India's multitudes, and finally the old villages from where their family once came. Dramatic, vivid, moving and exotic, Peacocks Dancing is a truly spellbinding read.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.21

  Another magical saga by the author of 'Of Marriageable Age'. How many of us think as adults we've lost the vitality of childhood? And how many manage to find it again? This is Rita Maraj's dilemma. Living in a ramshackle house in Georgetown, leader of the local neighbourhood gang, Rita collects people like she does dogs, cats, ants, and even an unwanted police horse. But then her father remarries: her stepmother is determined to tidy up house, husband and stepdaughter, and move into respectable society. Rita's charm and liveliness become compressed by the pressure to conform, and the duty to find a suitable husband. But then a messenger arrives, searching for a possible heir to the distant family estates. Suddenly liberated, and determined to search for her roots, Rita's sense of adventure is reawakened first by the formidable personage of her distant relative, but even more by the tragedies of her long lost, romantic cousin. Her early life -- saving half the wildlife of her neighbourhood -- is only preparation for the destiny that awaits her. Dramatic and vivid, moving and exotic, 'Peacocks Dancing' is a captivating story, a joy to read.