On the night train to Rangoon, a young woman is travelling into a new life…
Winsome is just married and filled with anticipation. Her new husband is a stranger—one of the suitors chosen for her and the other mixed-race girls from the men who apply to the orphanage. But as the night train rattles towards her new home she sees possibility in this uncertain destiny. She knows she is headed for a new life in the metropolis.
She does not know about Rangoon, this city cradled in the arms of rivers. That it is about to be torn apart in the struggle between its ancient owners and new masters. That it will seduce her, possess her senses and change utterly her notion of what kind of woman she can be. When she meets Jonathan—when the monsoon comes—she begins to find out.
Reviews
“… [an] accomplished, intelligent debut novel … The Monsoon Bride is the work of a writer of superior gifts”
—Owen Richardson, The Age
“… reminiscent at its best of the way that E M Forster negotiates the inextricability of personal life from political and historical forces in A Passage to India”
—Kerryn Goldsworthy, Pick of the Week, Sydney Morning Herald
“hooked me from the start”
—Jennifer Byrne, Women’s Weekly
“beautifully captur[es] time and place … in an exploration of love and remembrance of things past”
