Rumer Godden

High in the Himalayas, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General's harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. But now it sits abandoned; windswept and haunting. The General's son bestows the palace to the Sisters of Mary, and 'the House of Women', as it was once known, becomes the Convent of St Faith. Close to the Heavens, the nuns feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital....

Facing harsh adult realities, a young English girl in India must leave childhood behind, in this masterful tale from a New York Times–bestselling author.
The Ganges River runs through young Harriet’s world. The eleven-year-old daughter of the British owner of a successful jute concern, she loves her life in Bengal, India, on the river’s edge, so far removed from the English boarding school she attended before...

From a New York Times-bestselling author: A novel of a woman's journey from prostitute to brothel madam to murderess to nun in post-World War II France. A sense of adventure and an eagerness to savor life to the fullest impel young, orphaned Elizabeth Fanshawe to escape her cold, unloving home and enlist in the British Army as a driver in 1944. Dispatched to Paris at the close of the Allies' war against the hated Nazis, she soon finds herself swept...

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Greengage Summer: Two English sisters' lives are transformed when their father brings them to India. At fifteen and twelve, the daughters of Sir Edward Gwithiam of the diplomatic service have already seen more of the world than most children their age. But when Una and her younger sister, Halcyon, are summoned from their English boarding school to join their father in New Delhi, they encounter a reality...

For nearly one hundred and fifty years the Quin family has lived at China Court, their magnificent estate in the Welsh countryside. The land, gardens, and breathtaking home have been maintained, cherished, and ultimately passed along--from Eustace and Adza in the early nineteenth century to village-girl-turned-lady-of-the-manor Ripsie Quin, her children, and her granddaughter, Tracy, in the twentieth. Brilliantly intermingling the past and the present,...

A hotel in southern India is home to a host of romantic intrigues and human misadventures in this delightful novel from a New York Times–bestselling author. Over a decade before The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, award-winning author Rumer Godden was delighting readers with the exploits of the residents and staff at a quaint getaway resort in southern India.   Wily and winning Anglo-Indian hotel owner Auntie Sanni has entertained all manner of guests...

Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house in this masterful work of fiction from a New York Times–bestselling author. Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane is the last of his family to occupy the house at Number 99 Wiltshire Place in London. Now, in the early days of World War II, the elderly former general has been told that he must vacate the premises when the ninety-nine-year lease is up, leaving the only home he has ever known.   But...

Three unforgettable novels from a New York Times -bestselling author -- including Black Narcissus, which "bears comparison with A Passage to India " (Arthur Koestler). With Black Narcissus , her novel of five nuns in a remote Himalayan convent struggling against nature -- both physical and human -- Rumer Godden established her impeccable literary reputation. The New York Times wrote of her work: "Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding...

Three sisters battle poverty and prejudice in 1930s India in this heart-wrenching tale from a New York Times–bestselling novelist. Life is difficult for the three Lemarchant sisters in the latter years of the British Raj. Born of two cultures and rejected by both-the "half-caste" daughters of an Englishman and an Indian mother-twins Belle and Rosa and their younger sibling, Blanche, live with their widowed father and "Auntie" in an apartment in...

Orphaned Ivy finds her Christmas wish fulfilled with the help of a lonely couple and a doll named Holly.