Kingfishers Catch Fire

283 pp. 8vo. A powerful novel about idealism and its consequences set in the Himalayas. Set in Kashmir, this is the story of Sophie, a young and idealistic Englishwoman with two young daughters who decides to set up house in a remote Indian Village. She finds a tumbledown house nestled into the foothills of the Himalayas and there plans to live peacefully and frugally and at one with the villagers around her. However, she is blissfully ignorant of the turmoil that her arrival produces with the villagers soon in fierce competition for her patronage. Sophie's cook is finally prompted to take action and the consequences of his innocent plotting are catastrophic. This is a poignant story of the conflict between idealism and reality which has strong parallels with Rumer Godden's own life and experiences in the foothills of the Kashmiri Himalaya. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Margaret Rumer Godden, OBE (December 10, 1907 – November 8, 1998), was an English author of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books under the pen name of Rumer Godden. A few of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own. These include Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of the Goddens' childhood in a region of India that is now part of Bangladesh."