Under the Jeweled Sky

November 4, 2013
McQueen (The Secret Children) takes readers on an emotional coming-of-age journey in her latest novel. In 1947, Dr. Shofield moves his 18-year-old daughter Sophie and bitter wife Veronica from their London home to India, where he has accepted a position as a Maharaja’s doctor. With nothing to do but explore the palatial grounds, Sophie meets Jag, the son of a palace servant, who shows her hidden passageways, while over time carving a path straight to her heart. In Romeo and Juliet fashion, the two have explicitly been told they aren’t to socialize, much less fall in love. But something binds them deeper than their parents’ strict orders, even after Jag is sent away. Years later, Sophie returns to India with her British husband and finds that as much as she tried to quell them over the years, the memories of her first love—and the painful secret they share—have never truly left her. McQueen expertly captures the innocence and passion of young love—and how it can so quickly turn into something tragic when politics and the realities of adulthood get in the way. This historical page-turner deals out hope and heartbreak in turn, hurtling the reader toward its devastating denouement. Agent; Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

November 1, 2013
In this ill-fated romance between a British girl and an Indian boy during India's independence, the author opens the doors to a maharaja's palace, follows the bloody massacres of partition and uncovers the sordid secrets of the diplomatic community in Delhi. In 1947, Sophie finds herself in a maharaja's palace, a far cry from the privations of postwar England. While her physician father is kept busy tending to the hypochondria of the first and second maharinis and her mother stays in their rooms to avoid the "heathens," Sophie explores a wonderland. The vast rooms and gardens are beautiful but lonely until she meets Jag, the maharaja's bearer's son, who shows her the palace's hidden passages. A romance develops between the two teens, one consummated under the fireworks of India's independence celebration. When their relationship is discovered, Jag and his father are forced to leave the palace. Then, Sophie discovers she's pregnant, and her broken family (her parents despise each other, and her mother has beaten Sophie since childhood) splinters apart. Sophie is sent to a home for "girls like her," her mother returns to England, never to be heard from again (save for one venomous meeting), and her kind father begins to work at the refugee camps that have sprung up in the wake of partition. After her baby is born and left for adoption, Sophie goes to England and meets her future husband, Lucien, a diplomat in need of a wife, particularly one who has lived in India, the jewel of foreign assignments. Back in India, Sophie is miserable, constrained by life in a diplomatic colony, ignored and abused by a husband who is worse than her mother, and longing for her first love. Jag is close by, having tracked Sophie to Delhi, a secret waiting for her at his home. McQueen has a fine sense of place and character--the one flaw is the odd organization; the narration jumps back and forth in time indiscriminately, dampening the emotional impact of this historical tear-jerker. A richly imagined story of love, politics and fate, but one with a sometimes-jerky narrative pace.

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December 15, 2013
In the waning post-WWII days of British rule over India, foreign service postings seemed pretty cushy. Maharajas with multiple wives, or maharanis, oversaw princely states from elaborate palaces. The British foreign service settled in as welcome guests in the maharaja's domain, where cocktail parties and gossip were rampant. British writer McQueen sets her latest novel in this splendorous scene and brings together Sophie Schofield, the daughter of a British doctor and his obsessively prudish wife, and Jag, the son of a Hindu bearer to the maharaja. With the coming partition, an anxious anticipation settles on all who remain. Jag takes Sophie on backstage tours through hidden passageways, where she learns to love the beauty of the palace, and Jag, of course. The story flows easily between 1947 and 1958 as the tale of these star-crossed lovers unfolds. Rich with history and a candid view of the racism, discrimination, and sexism of the day, McQueen's historical novel provides more than a compelling story set in an exotic locale. Part mystery, part romance, it defines love's bond through time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)