The Seduction of Silence - Hardcover

Le Hunte, Bem

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006052197X ISBN 13: 9780060521974

Publisher: HarperOne, 2003

Synopsis

Infused with the magic of India and the great mysteries of life, The Seduction of Silence follows the spiritual and emotional journeys of a remarkable Indian family through five generations.

Aakash, venerated sage and healer, is the founder of Prakriti -- an abundant farm in the Himalayas. From this soulful mountain home, his children embark on the journeys that will sway the destinies of future generations: gentle son Ram, whose fierce search for enlightenment will force him to choose between his family and his soul; daughter Tulsi Devi, whose convent schooling provides an unexpected, brutal education forever altering her life; Tulsi Devi's beloved first child, Jivan -- born in the waters of the Ganges, cruelly separated from his mother; and Aakash's granddaughter Rohini, who travels across the world on a painted bus to a new land and a new kind of freedom, immersing herself in the London of the 1960s.

With Rohini's daughter, Saakshi, the search for enlightenment comes full circle, and the great-granddaughter returns to her spiritual home -- the holy mountains of Prakriti, where their family story first began. Both magical and utterly compelling, this spellbinding novel interweaves family sagas with the richness of Indian mysticism, creating an intimate portrait of an unforgettable family.

About this title

About the Author:

Bem Le Hunte was born in Calcutta to an Indian mother and British father. She grew up in India and London, studied anthropology at Cambridge, and worked as a university lecturer and copywriter before moving to the Himalayas to have a baby and write this book. She now lives in California with her husband and two sons.

From Publishers Weekly:

Sydney-based writer Le Hunte makes her American debut with this story of several generations of Indian women who span decades and continents in their quest for enlightenment. In the 1930s, the sage and wealthy landowner and patriarch, Aakash, and his son, Ram, head for the highest mountain peaks in search of spiritual awakening, leaving behind Aakash's daughter, Tulsi Devi, and his rigidly traditional wife, Jyoti Ma, at the family's Himalayan farm. Tulsi Devi would have liked to go on a spiritual quest of her own, but instead is sent to a convent school at Lahore, where a traumatic incident lands her in a loveless marriage. She manages to imbue her daughter, Rohini, with a more independent spirit. Rohini becomes a doctor, but she also marries an Englishman, a move that leaves her estranged from all her family-except, that is, for the spirit of her grandfather Aakash, who communes with her regularly and guides her on her own spiritual path. The magic realist touches scattered throughout the novel have won Le Hunte comparisons to Isabel Allende and Salman Rushdie, but Le Hunte has a snappy, more commercial style (when Rohini tells her pregnant daughter to stop complaining, the acid-tongued daughter thinks, "Thanks, Mama. Can you remember to tell me your worst birth stories just before I go into labor? We'll put some time aside, OK?"). Those who are not yet weary of multigenerational women's sagas will appreciate Le Hunte's fluid storytelling and vivid scene setting.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 006052197X
• ISBN 13: 9780060521974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416