I loved this book as it is the work of a real story teller. This is the first sentence: 'She is twelve years old, and she will be married in the morning.' Who would not be instantly drawn in by that? Shocking by today's standards, but in India in 1900, this happened, and it didn't always turn out to be a bad thing. A marriage broker had arranged the marriage and the groom is a man of forty whose first wife died leaving their baby son with no-one to look after him. By marrying again, the man will immediately have found a nursemaid, cook and housekeeper and the bride's mother (who is a widow) wants to give her daughter the security she cannot provide herself. The bride and groom have not set eyes on each other before the wedding, and the man is shocked to find his bride is just a child and he storms away from the altar. He is only persuaded to return after being persuaded that the shame of being left stranded on her wedding day will mean that no-one el...