The Wonder House

(, Main)

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Description

The Wonder House is a houseboat moored on Nagin Lake in the Valley of Kashmir, on which Gracie Singh, an ageing Yorkshirewoman has been living out her widowhood since the death of her Indian husband. She has moulded herself a new family with two Kashmiri women, Suriya and her daughter Lila, who tend to her in her dotage. Gracie has watched the valley's brutal disfigurement across the years of conflict, just as she has watched her friend and landlord, Masood Abdullah, becoming an anxious father, where once there was a laid-back, flirtatious young man. When Hal, a journalist from England, comes to interview Gracie she invites him to move from his hotel to her houseboat, in the unspoken hope that he will stay. But Gracie could not have anticipated Hal's infatuation for Lila, the intensity of which threatens to destroy The Wonder House, and its inhabitants.

Reviews

"A heartbreaking book... the love story seems to mirror the complicated political struggle surrounding it and the ending is so painful, like Romeo and Juliet... A huge achievement.' * Joanna Lumley *
'A rare book - subtle, sensitive, sensual' * Achmat Dangor *
'Hardy's evident intimacy with and affection for the troubled landscape and people of her novel lend The Wonder House an air of distinction' * The Times *
'Brilliant... each of the characters is wonderfully crafted' * Easy Living *

Author Bio

Justine Hardy has spent much of the past fifteen years based in India as a writer, journalist and documentary maker. She has worked and written for papers ranging from the Australian via the Indian Express to the Financial Times. Her first book, The Ochre Border was about the reopening of the Tibetan frontierlands. Her second, Scoop wallah: Life on a Delhi Daily was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Award. Other books include Goat:A Story of Kashmir and Notting Hill and Bollywood Boy, about the high-octane world of the Hindi film industry. The Wonder House is her first novel.