A Lovesong for India (Tales from East to West)

A Love Song for India is the latest offering from the award winning novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Prawer Jhabvala is perhaps best known for winning screenplay Oscars for Room with A View and Howard’s End; as well as being awarded the Booker in 1975 for Heat and Dust, which is being re-issued by Abacus to coincide with this publication.

A Love Song for India is a moving collection of short stories, all with an air of the fantastic, each with its own allegorical message to give. As the subtitle suggests, the stories move from east to west, from post-colonial Delhi to uptown New York; from the fields of India to the streets of Manhattan. Each tale offers the reader an enticing insight into the lives of a wide assortment of characters, a glimpse behind the doors of private lives.

Prawer Jhabvala has produced a collection that deals with issues including fame and fortune, love and obsession, corruption and revenge. Beautifully written and perfectly paced, it is further proof of the power and mastery of her storytelling. Highly recommended.

Rachel Hazelwood