The Jewel in the Crown

Daphne Manners, an unsophisticated British woman visiting Mayapore, falls in love with Hari Kumar, a complex, young Indian who has been educated in England. Inexorably the two lovers are caught up in the social upheaval sweeping India at the end of British rule...until they are parted forever after the fatal confrontation in the Bibighar Gardens. Since the author is saying that their tragedy is as much about India as it is about them, he tells the story in the words of seven diverse characters involved in the affair. Sam Dastor interprets them all with dramatic ease. Having for years narrated the books about Inspector Ghote of the Bombay Secret Police, he has perfected his Indian accent. But he was also educated at Cambridge and is just as convincing as Miss Crane and Ronald Merrick and the other British expatriates. He captures beautifully the deep feeling growing between Daphne and Hari as they reach out to each other. Once again a narrator's inspired reading breathes life into two characters who never seemed so alive on the printed page.Their star-crossed love, glorified as it is by the human voice, reaffirms the enduring tragedy of The Jewel in the Crown. J.C. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine