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The Tailor’s Needle

The novel is a tailor's needle indeed - passing with grace and ease through the fabric of society both Indian and English, the fabric of several narrative genres and traditions and the fabric of a reader's mind. This mind is quickly drawn into the lively world of the Ranbakshi family, from the privileged life in Kashinagar to farming near Mirzapur, from battles of wit with the Viceroy to the twisted encounter with a spoiled aristocrat in a gothic castle in Amritsar.

And into the wide and sweeping picture steps a wonderful cast of characters: a rebellious daughter, a righteous father, a self-serving and yet somehow likeable governess, a deliciously hateable dwarven cousin and a gender-confused dog - to name but a few.

The whole is held together by a gently mocking and yet ultimately compassionate narrative voice, which gives the reader a brief and enchanting glimpse into a world now gone, with all its faults - and all that might be loved in it, too.

[Review by Gis Hoyle on Amazon.co.UK]

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