Golden Afternoon

In this second volume of her autobiography, Kaye returns to India and resurrects a way of life that has long since passed into history. It is 1927 and, after studying in England, nineteen-year-old Mollie Kaye is reunited with India, the country where she spent her early years. As an awkward girl with a vivacious and intrepid mother, Kaye seeks comfort in her Indian friends, her sister and father, her talent for watercolors, and her ongoing love affair with India itself. She vividly recreates all the richness of the Raj, the complex ceremonies of high-caste Indian life, and the beauty of a Kashmir spring. As she has in such novels as THE FAR PAVILIONS, she lovingly brings to life the people and glorious terrain of the India she knew so well. "No one is better at recalling that lost time before the Second World War...evocative, sumptuous and addictive. (amazon.com)