Chapter 25 Introducing RA157 "Indian Life and Death"

It depends on Shirley.Thomas's third novel "Not Quite a Husband" (Not Quite a Husband, literally translated as Husband Difficult), it is best to choose a time when no one will disturb, because it is like a fine wine, which should be savored slowly and leisurely. A short preface explains how unhappy the heroine Benny is in her marriage to her husband, Leo, and the events that lead her to seek a divorce.Then skip ahead three years, and they meet again in Chitra, in northern India (now on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border). After the divorce, Benny went to Germany, the United States, and finally arrived in India, which was still a colony of the British Empire at that time. Benny's sister telegraphed Leo who happened to be in India, asking him to pass on the news that her father was dying.Bernie agreed to go south with Leo in order to leave India by train and ship back to England.During this period, first he contracted malaria, and then they were trapped in the famous uprising of the Swat Valley Indians seeking independence, so the journey was protracted by force majeure factors.Together in this way, they are forced to examine the reasons for their marital problems.

The book is not long, only 338 pages (the number of pages in an English book), and the words are large, but it has enough depth and powerful description of the characters' intricate personalities.The author's writing style is beautiful and incisive, which made me reread many soul-stirring fragments many times, with a deep aftertaste.Her description makes you feel as if you are on the scene, as if you saw those places with your own eyes and smelled those smells.And every love scene is hot, convincingly illustrating the progress of the relationship between the hero and heroine. Beni and Leo are really a perfect example of how two smart, loving and well-meaning people can turn a godsend into a relationship because of both their intensity of passion and their lack of understanding of each other. Get out of hand.They have known each other since they were neighbors, but the heroine is four years older and never took the little boy who secretly had a crush on her seriously.And when they reunited in London many years later, she was ahead of her time, already a very serious and successful female professional physician, while he was a young, handsome and smart mathematician recognized by the academic circles, He is also a traveler and a popular stage playwright, and has published many papers.

From the retrospective chapters interspersed between their journeys, we can know that they love each other too much, so when things get worse, they try their best not to hurt each other, and giving what they think the other wants will cause unrest in their relationship. Clean up disaster.Because the two are so wrong, the readers feel heartbroken for a while, and sigh for a while. (Both make a big mistake each, but the scenes they handle and face are moving and deeply satisfying to read.) I try not to give away the plot.It's sort of a road romance, meaning that the relationship blossoms as the journey progresses, as they deal with Bernie's infertility and the impact of the age gap on their relationship.Leo, the male protagonist, is masculine, caring, and likable from page one.Sometimes Benny is not easy to like, and when she is not suitable, she is well prepared, and when she is willing to bravely face the ghost in her heart, I start to like her very much.

I also like the way the ending is handled, since it keeps saying: Love is not enough.Then the hero and heroine must find a way to make their life goals compatible with each other, just like people in real life, so that they can live together.I admire and like this ending very much. The book has its inevitable flaws, but they don't detract from the enjoyment of reading: Leo is a little too versatile, and Bernie has a little too much past life frustration.Such a plot is certainly necessary, but it still feels a bit over the top.Also, please, give me a map please! (Annotation: There is a map on the author's website.) Where are they running around?Leo's two older brothers played important roles in the previous book. Fortunately, the stories were independent, but the former revealed a lot of background information.

I have all the romances I want in this book (Ming, only the map is missing), I can identify with and like the cute but flawed protagonists, vivid descriptions, interesting backgrounds, and romances that deeply moved me .I don't think I can recommend it enough. I can only say that I am very much looking forward to the author's next new book. Thanks to Rike Horstmann and www.likesbook.com for agreeing to translate and reprint Editor's note: According to the latest Top 100 Romance released by AAR in November 2010, this "Indian Life and Death" has already defeated many opponents and ranked eighteenth on the list. Fast rookie.After all, this book is only the third book of this Chinese author since his debut.It is also the winner of the 2010 RITA Award for Best Historical Novel, http://www.reanational.org/cs/2010_rita_award_winners.