Companions of Paradise

In 1841 in Lahore, India, British expatriate Mariana Givens believes her husband Hassan Ali Khan, a Punjabi Muslim, plots to kill her Aunt Claire and Uncle Adrian, an Intel Officer. Outraged, she flees her new home demanding a divorce and travels to reside with her aunt and uncle behind the safe walls of the British fort near Kabul, Afghanistan. However once there, she hides from her family and the British officials and their dependents that she remains married. Mariana rues her rash rush to judgment as she misses her beloved Hassan, his four-year-old son Saboor, and her fathering-law the renowned Sufi mystic. When Hassan fails to answer her pleading letters to forgive her, Mariana turns to a local soothsayer for advice. However, her biggest fear is the open hostilities between the British and the local supporters vs. the tribes who want the ousted king returned When the tale concentrates on the "first" Afghan war, COMPANIONS OF PARADISE is a superior period piece that brings to life the British mid nineteenth colonization of the country. However, when the plot focuses on Mariana's introspective of her personal issues through dreams and fortune tellers, it loses some of the momentum. Still this final tale of Victorian India and Afghanistan can stand alone though it is enhanced by first reading A BEGGAR AT THE GATE and SINGULAR HOSTAGE. This is a fascinating insightful look back with fascinating parallels to the modern day Afghan war. Harriet Klausner

This is the third in the series of books by Thalassa Ali set in India and Afghanistan during British rule. The first book, "A Singular Hostage", told the story of Mariana Givens who has arrived in India to look for a husband; instead she finds herself looking after a small native boy, Saboor, who is some kind of mystic. She also finds herself rather unexpectedly married to his father, Hassan Ali Khan. The second book, "Beggar At The Gate", follows Mariana's learning about wisdom whilst staying in Hassan's house but also details her foolishness and the way in which she fails her new family, culminating in Hassan being severely injured and Mariana returning to her family who are making the journey to Afghanistan. This third book is set almost entirely in Afghanistan. Mariana is supposed to have been divorced by Hassan but she is not sure he has actually done it. Her Uncle and Aunt want her to marry Lieutenant Fitzgerald and Mariana can imagine a future with him - and yet she can't reconcile herself to not being part of Hassan and Saboor's family. Mariana also finds herself aware of the undercurrents in Afghanistan and concerned at the stupidity of the British military in their dealings with the Afghan leaders. We also follow the story of Hassan as he sets out to retrieve his wife from Afghanistan, having to deal with problems on the way. The story is ostensibly about a woman torn between two cultures but I found it more powerful when reading it as a description of the role of the British in Afghanistan with all their faults. There is a fair bit of Sufi mysticism in this book, as in the others, which consists of tales told by various wise people - tales which didn't actually seem to mean very much to me at all - and there are some really good descriptions of Indian and Afghan characters. Sadly for me this book didn't join the list of great books about the British Raj because I couldn't really sympathise with Mariana; although a more appealing character than in the previous two books (in which she spends her time getting into one scrape or another and causing her relatives heartache) she doesn't seem to do anything particularly worthwhile except play with the affections of Lieutenant Fitzgerald when she doesn't consider herself divorced. Her amazing command of the local languages is another problematic point about this trilogy of books - she apparently learned Urdu in 3 months, enough to understand complex poetry; although she's had a language teacher for the next 3 years she still seems rather amazingly good at Farsi and Urdu for an otherwise undistinguished young lady. There is a love story in this book - as well as the other two - but you have to delve deep to find it and, for me, it wasn't satisfactorily resolved. Goodness knows what Hassan sees in his wife - apparently he sees some good in her, but I think she's the one getting the most out of this partnership even if she'll be stuck in purdah forevermore. This book is well written and the l