Book Synopsis:
She allows herself to kiss her perfect child just once. She wraps the baby in her last gift: a hand-knitted cardigan, embroidered with a water lily pattern. ‘You’re better off without me,’ she whispers and although every step breaks her heart, she walks away.
1910, India. Young and curious Alice, with her spun-gold hair, grows up in her family’s sprawling compound with parents as remote as England, the cold country she has never seen. It is Raju, son of a servant, with whom she shares her secrets. Together, their love grows like roses – but leaves deep thorns. Because when they get too close, Alice’s father drags them apart, sending Raju far away and banishing Alice to England…
1944. Intelligent and kind Janaki is raised in an orphanage in India. The nuns love to tell the story: Janaki’s arrival stopped the independence riots outside the gates, as the men on both sides gazed at the starry-eyed little girl left in a beautiful hand-knitted cardigan. Janaki longs for her real mother, the woman who was forced to abandon her, wrapped in a precious gift…
Now old enough to be a grandmother and living alone in India, Alice watches children play under the tamarind trees, haunted by the terrible mistake she made fifty years ago. It’s just an ordinary afternoon, until a young girl with familiar eyes appears with a photograph and Alice must make a choice. Will she spend the rest of her life consumed by dreams of the past, or can she admit her mistakes and choose love and light at last?
A stunning and heartbreaking novel about how a forbidden love can echo through the generations. Readers who love Lucinda Riley, Kathryn Hughes and The Storyteller’s Secret will be captivated.
The Orphan’s Gift is available in ebook and paperback now. The ebook is currently only 99p. You can purchase your copy using the link below.
My Review:
The Orphan’s Gift is another beautiful, compelling read from this talented author. One of the things I most enjoy about this author is her incredibly vivid descriptions which enables the reader to fully imagine the story almost like they are watching it all unfold. This story was no exception as I soon found myself completely immersed in the story and the characters lives.
The book is told from two different points of view and two different time periods which made for very intriguing reading. I’ve always enjoyed books based in India at the time of British rule and so found myself drinking in all the little details of everyday life. The historical events mentioned in the book are real ones and I found it very interesting to learn more these times, especially the effect it had on everyone.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this absorbing though heartbreaking read. As a mum myself I felt very sympathetic towards Alice and the pure agony she must have felt. I found myself tearing up at some of the scenes as they were very emotional and quite poignant to read about. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical or dual timeline reads.
Huge thanks to Noelle from Bookouture for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.
About The Author:
Renita D’Silva loves stories, both reading and creating them. Her short stories have been published in ‘The View from Here’, ‘Bartleby Snopes’, ‘this zine’, ‘Platinum Page’, ‘Paragraph Planet’ among others and have been nominated for the ‘Pushcart’ prize and the ‘Best of the Net’ anthology. She is the author of ‘Monsoon Memories’, ‘The Forgotten Daughter’, ‘The Stolen Girl’, ‘A Sister’s Promise’, ‘A Mother’s Secret’, ‘A Daughter’s Courage’, ‘Beneath An Indian Sky’, ‘The Girl In The Painting’, ‘The Orphan’s Gift’. FB: https://www.facebook.com/RenitaDSilvaBooks Twitter: @RenitaDSilva Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renita_dsilva/ Website: http://renitadsilva.com/ Email: Renitadsilvabooks@gmail.com
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