Book review: Before the Rains by Dinah Jefferies
20 Feb
1930, Rajputana, India. Since her husband’s death, 28-year-old photojournalist Eliza’s only companion has been her camera. When the British Government send her to an Indian princely state to photograph the royal family, she’s determined to make a name for herself.
But when Eliza arrives at the palace she meets Jay, the Prince’s handsome, brooding brother. While Eliza awakens Jay to the poverty of his people, he awakens her to the injustices of British rule. Soon Jay and Eliza find they have more in common than they think. But their families – and society – think otherwise. Eventually they will have to make a choice between doing what’s expected, or following their hearts. . .
Dinah Jefferies’ ability to conjure up the sights, smells, tastes and atmosphere of a particular country at a particular time in her writing is second to none. Dinah’s books unite two of my favourite topics; history and travel and always provide a wonderful escape and as with her previous novels, Before the Rains is another vividly transporting story and I loved it.
For Before the Rains our destination is India in the 1930s. It is a time of great change for the country and in the wider world and lead character Eliza embodies this with her desire to strike out in her own right as a photographer and pursue a career as a photojournalist. Eliza is given the opportunity to visit one of the princely states to photograph the royal family as part of an archive by the British Government and this sets the scene for a story filled with colour, drama, secrets and mystery that examines the tensions between two cultures and provides a captivatingly emotional story of loss and love that really brought the characters to life for me.
I’ve never visited India but it’s clear from her evocative writing that Dinah has and that she loves the country that she is writing about. I thought Dinah cleverly presented practices and customs and the different views on them on both sides of the story with understanding and allowed me as a reader to form my own judgments on this period of history.
With Jay and Eliza, Dinah has created one of my favourite relationships in an historical fiction novel – I loved how their connection slowly developed and was heartbroken when it became clear that the expectations of Jay’s royal role would not allow them to be together. Dinah uses both Jay and Eliza and their relatives and friends in India and England to explore the notions of love, loss, family, fate and destiny and as you’ve probably gathered by now, I found Before the Rains an emotional and gripping read.
The story is in four parts and follows Eliza through a year in her life. I very much enjoyed reading about the changes that the diiferent seasons bought and the festivals and celebrations that went with them. As secrets are revealed and change cannot be avoided, Eliza has to decide whether to follow her head or her heart and Dinah kept me hooked right to the end of the story with excellent pace and fantastic locations that mirrored the drama of the story. I can’t wait to see where she will take me next!
5/5
Before the Rains is released in hardback and ebook formats by Viking on 23rd February.
Find out more about Dinah and her writing at: http://www.dinahjefferies.com/
I’d like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.
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