Staying with Relations

Catherine, an English noivelist, goes to stay with her aunt who has bought an old Spanish plantation in a Guatemalan forest, here she meets her cousin Isie, recently married, and her aunt's new husband and his four children. Family complications arise, isie's husband has fallen in love with one of his mother-in-law's stepchildren. A smooth-talking American conman, Mr Phipps, has his eye on some hidden Indian treasures, and ends up being persued across America by Catherine and her step-cousins. Full of humorous situations, witty dialogue and amusing characters, and wonderful viviv descriptions of the Guatamalan jungle and its inhiabitants. Thuis is Rose macaulay's most entertaining novel.