Heat and Dust

by RuthPrawerJhabvala (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $5.15

• Used

  Paperback
  1987

  $16.94

  Set in India, HEAT AND DUST is the story of Olivia, a beautiful, spoiled, bored English colonial wife in the 1920s who is drawn inexorably into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in plots and intrigues. Olivia outrages the tiny, suffocating town where her husband is a civil servant by eloping with the captivating Nawab. It is also the story of Olivia's step-granddaughter who, fifty years later, is drawn to India by her fascination with the letters left behind by the now dead older woman, and by her obsession with solving the enigma of Olivia's scandal. A penetrating and compassionate love story, this brilliant novel immerses the reader in the heat, dust, and squalor of India, while providing a compelling mixture of the spiritual and the sensual.

• New

  Paperback
  1999

  $18.03

  Set in the 1920s amid the suffocating heat and exotic landscapes of India, this penetrating novel juxtaposes one womans search for passion and independence against the social constraints of proper British behavior. A profound and powerful novel, winner of the Booker Prize.. Set in colonial India during the 1920s, Heat and Dust tells the story of Olivia, a beautiful woman suffocated by the propriety and social constraints of her position as the wife of an important English civil servant. Longing for passion and independence, Olivia is drawn into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in gang raids and criminal plots. She is intrigued by Nawabs charm and aggressive courtship, and soon begins to spend most of her days in his company. But then she becomes pregnant, and unsure of the childs paternity, she is faced with a wrenching dilemma. Her reaction to the crisis humiliates her husband and outrages the British community, breeding a scandal that lives in collective memory long after her death. Olivias story is told by her step-granddaughter, who travels to India fifty years later. The narrator becomes absorbed in Olivias story through the dead womans letters and through conversations with villagers who remember the scandal. Gradually absorbed by Olivias state of mind, she embarks on a parallel journey of sensuality and spiritual challenge, amid the heat and exotic landscapes of this eternally fascinating country.