Just as a good Danish pastry consists of layer upon layer upon layer of rich pastry, so The Body in the Clouds is formed from layers of rich storytelling. In her first novel, shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book, Ashley Hay takes one moment in history and tells three different stories.
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The lush verdant landscape of the Gamboeng plantation in Java dominates both the beginning and the ending of this dense family saga of Dutch plantation owners; it is truly the dominant character in Haasse's fine novel. She describes 'a drapery of dense, vivid green covering a gigantic, recumbent body' and speaks of 'the embrace of the jungle' as if it were a living, breathing human.
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The ghosts of Kamalini Sengupta's Rajmahal fret and fume over renovations made to the Calcutta mansion as it is sold and divided into six apartments. Even more disturbing is the motley cross-section of fashionable Calcutta society that moves into those apartments.
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Sara Highbury, the manager of a Cape Town, South Africa boarding house, lives her life in the past. She is haunted by a man named Herbert Wakeford, the love of her life who suffered from a degenerative brain condition. One day not long after Herbert's death, another of Sara's lovers, Amin Hafferjee, pays her an unexpected visit, and Sara proceeds to tell him her life's story.
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Twisted Spoon is an English language publisher of Eastern European literature, based in Prague. Their mission, according to their website, includes the translation of 'eclectic and unique' works previously denied to English readers. Enter Natasza Goerke.
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