Indian Summer

Will Randall, wearied of his job teaching sullen, unresponsive English children, accepts an offer from an eccentric elderly lady to accompany her on her annual journey to India, and then travels to Poona. Once in Poona, Mr Randall finds himself getting caught up in the affairs of an ashram for destitue children, where he is persauded to teach English. His adventures in India are often hilarious, occasionally heartbreaking. The sights and sounds and smells of Poona are vividy described, but it is the people who are most memorable, especially the children of the ashram, whose cheeerfulness and courage and optimism in the midst of appalling poverty and deprivation left me breathless with admiration. Will Randall's story is quite enthralling, and the small triumphs won by the children and the ashram by the end of the book will make you want to cheer. I just couldn't put this book down.