An elegant, moving, and heartfelt love letter to the sights, sounds, and tastes of northern India told through the enthralling story of the troubled relationship between a father and daughter stretching from Partition to the present day

James Connor is a man who, burdened with guilt following a tragic event in his youth, has dedicated his life to serving India. Ruth Connor is his estranged daughter who, as a teenager, always knew she came second to her parents’ missionary vocation and rebelled, with equally tragic consequences. After 24 years away, Ruth finally returns to Askival, the family home in Mussoorie, a remote hill station in the Northern State of Uttarakhand, to tend to her dying father. There she must face the past and confront her own burden of guilt if she is to cross the chasm that has grown between them. In this extraordinary and assured debut, Merryn Glover draws on her own upbringing as a child of missionary parents in India to create this sensitive, complex, moving, and epic journey through the sights, sounds and often violent history of India from Partition to the present day.