. . . Come, when the rains Have glazed the snow, and clothed the trees with ice; While the slant sun of February pours Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach! The encrusted surface shall upbear they steps, And the broad arching portals of the grove Welcome thy entering. Look! The massy trunks Are cased in the pure crystal, each light spray, Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven, Is studded with its trembling water drops, That stream with rainbow radiance as they move, But round the parent stem the long low boughs Bend, in a glittering ring, and arbors hide The grassy floor. . . — William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

"I read a great book recently, and ..."

I read a fascinating book last week and wanted to share it with you. In his first novel, the prize-winning The Last Song of Dusk, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi weaves the intricate story of Anuradha and Vardhmaan Gandharva, a young Indian couple, and their extended family living under the British Raj in the 1920s. Their story is one of love and loss, joy and tragedy, birth and death, sensuality and fantasy, and racial prejudice and intolerance. Told sometimes in moving poetic prose and sometimes with biting and hilarious comedy, the book describes the search for individual destiny. The undertone of the novel is melancholy despite the intermittent ironic twists and sassy dialogue.  The author states that he “wanted to write a book about love that is defined by its absence . . .  the book moves because of love’s absence.”  The nature of love between husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend — whether withheld or freely given — provides the major theme of the book. This love does not always lead to happiness and sometimes is not enough. Anuradha explains her final heart-rending decision in the following words, “We have to do things for the sake of love that we cannot ever imagine doing in the midst of our abhorrence.”

A fascinating family saga set against the exotic background of India, The Last Song of Dusk is eminently suited for book club reading and discussion.

Ballantine Books has provided Reading Group Choices with a few complimentary copies of this extraordinary book. For a chance to win a copy, please enter The Last Song of Dusk Drawing. Good Luck!

As always, thanks for keeping the joy of reading alive.

Barbara
bmead@readinggroupchoices.com