Teatime for the Firefly
By Shona Patel
4/5
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About this ebook
Layla Roy has defied the fates. Despite being born under an inauspicious horoscope, she is raised to be educated and independent by her eccentric grandfather, Dadamoshai. And, by cleverly manipulating the hand fortune has dealt her, she has even found love with Manik Deba man betrothed to another. All were minor miracles in India that spring of 1943, when young women's lives were predeterminedif not by the stars, then by centuries of family tradition and social order.
Layla's life as a newly married woman takes her away from home and into the jungles of Assam, where the world's finest tea thrives on plantations run by native labor and British efficiency. Fascinated by this culture of whiskey-soaked expats who seem fazed by neither earthquakes nor man-eating leopards, she struggles to find her place among the prickly English wives with whom she is expected to socialize, and the peculiar servants she now finds under her charge.
But navigating the tea-garden set will hardly be her biggest challenge. Layla's remote home is not safe from the powerful changes sweeping India on the heels of the Second World War. Their colonial society is at a tipping point, and Layla and Manik find themselves caught in a perilous racial divide that threatens their very lives.
Shona Patel
Shona Patel, the daughter of an Assam tea planter, drew upon her personal observations and experiences to create the vivid characters and setting for Teatime for the Firefly. An honors graduate in English literature from Calcutta University, Ms. Patel has won several awards for creative writing and is a trained graphic and architectural designer. Teatime for the Firefly is her debut novel.
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Reviews for Teatime for the Firefly
51 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written and a lovely story. I could not put it down and loved feeling like I was transported.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A combination romance/historical novel (my first Harlequin!) set after WW II, Patel shares the fictionalized story of her parents, residents of a tea plantation in Assam, one of India's far Eastern states. Layla, an orphan, is raised by her grandfather, an honored non-corruptible judge and Brit fancier. When she meets Manik Deb, raised in London, he has been in an arranged engagement to another girl since he was 16. The first part of the book takes on the family issues.In the second part, Layla and Manik are living on the tea planation, where Manim is the first Indian to be hired as an assistant manager by the absentee British owners. The tea plantation life is isolated, dangerous, and drenched in alcohol. The viewpoint is that of contempt for the local native workers and servants, here called "coolies". When political forces seek to raise the workers into a higher standard of living, the British rulers are of course unwilling to put a dent in their profits, and then the violent partition wars between Muslims and Hindus renders the plantation world perilous.Although I don't support the politics, the novel is brimming with memorable images of this magnificent part of the world, and the tale of love and risk is both strong and inspirational.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Layla is destined to be lonely because she was born under an unlucky star, which supposedly means she will not be a good match as a wife for any man. Layla has been educated unlike many other local girls thanks to her well-known and well-loved grandfather, which is another thing that sets her apart. She has come to accept the way that others view her as cursed, so she is pleasantly surprised when she meets Manik, an outsider who is engaged to marry another woman, and they fall in love and marry. Layla and her husband end up running a tea plantation together, but they are met with their share of troubles caused by changing times and war.
I enjoyed reading this book. The story flowed well and Shona Patel's writing is lyrical and engaging. The exotic setting on a tea plantation in India in particular appealed to me. The characters are alive and familiar. This was a nice lazy day read for me even though I tend to dislike romance novels.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a great book for discussion groups. It's the story of life on a tea plantation during the 1940's.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51943 and in India women's rights were not considered as important. Family traditions and social order ruled their lives. Layla Ray manipulated her fate, as did Manik Deb, a man promised to another. The story unfolds in a delightful way, and eventually Layla and Manik are able to wed. They begin leading a life unfamiliar to both of them, living in a British-run tea plantation. History of such a life is interwoven in this romantic and yet frightening story of India's colonial society before World War Two.I recommend this book, not just for the well told love story, but for the page-turning events that describe the racial division and tension at the time.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overall I enjoyed this book, It had an interesting setting and time period. The writer gives us a good idea of what struggles Layla had to face as a young woman in India, from her life at home and later as a married woman. Layla was fortunate that she was able to break from many of the expectations of Indian tradition. I loved the descriptions of India and the tea plantation life. Unfortunately I did not feel that strong of an attachment to the characters, there needed to be something that swept you into to the story and their lives. I think that it is missing the depth of an emotional connection. I felt that this was a good story, but it could’ve been a great story!!! I give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The road to my grandfather’s house was wide and tree-lined, with Gulmohor Flame Trees planted at regular intervals: exactly thirty feet apart. Their leafy branches crisscrossed overhead to form a magnificent latticed archway. On summer days the road was flecked with gold, and spring breezes showered down a torrent of vermillion petals that swirled and trembled in the dust like wounded butterflies.
(end excerpt)
Set against the backdrop of Assam tea plantations in the 1940’s, and the civil unrest that led to India dividing into two nations, Teatime for the Firefly tells the story of Layla. An unusual girl by the standards of the time, born “under an unlucky star” and orphaned young, she is the blended product of her culture, and her exceptionally forward thinking grandfather, Dadamoshai.
From the privileged household of the District Magistrate, to the servant staffed bungalows of the British-owned Aynakhal tea plantation where she moves with her new husband, Layla grows from a naive young girl into Memsahib of Aynakhal. Through her eyes we see a world that bears more than a passing resemblance to the pre-civil war cotton plantations of the southern United States. Though the coolies are not slaves, picking tea is all they’ve known for generations, and it keeps them in thrall to the plantation managers, to whom they look up as small children to a God, depending on the largess of the managers for their precarious well-being.
With dream-like names like: Bogopani (White Water), Hatigarh (Elephant House) and Rangamati (Red Earth), the ‘tea gardens’ as they are called, are rendered in vivid, playful prose that evokes a steamy, verdant bygone India. Interwoven with the often funny story of Layla’s personal experiences and her growing love for Manik, are stories of a child attacked by a tiger; rogue elephants and rhinos terrorizing workers; the prostitutes of Auntie’s—who, interestingly, dye their bottoms bright pink!; the chokri girl sold into slavery who ends up with a British title and an heirloom diamond as big as an almond; snobbish, miserable young English wives who cannot adapt, and their older, wiser counter-parts—grand British dames who fully embrace life as Memsahib on an Indian tea plantation.
Author Shona Patel weaves in a sobering dose of cultural and social issues that are still recognizable in today’s India: arranged marriage, the plight of widows, the vulnerability of women in a society that undervalues them, poverty and child-selling.
The characters are deftly-drawn and believable, the stories at times funny, at times frightening. One of the best historical novels I’ve read this year, Teatime for the Firefly is full immersion in the experience of a place, time and culture. I highly recommend it.