The Tea Planter's Wife

Dinah Jefferies' unforgettable new novel, The Tea Planter's Wife is a haunting, tender portrait of a woman forced to choose between her duty as a wife and her instinct as a mother... 
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper steps off a steamer in Ceylon full of optimism, eager to join her new husband. But the man who greets her at the tea plantation is not the same one she fell in love with in London.
Distant and brooding, Laurence spends long days wrapped up in his work, leaving his young bride to explore the plantation alone. It's a place filled with clues to the past - locked doors, a yellowed wedding dress in a dusty trunk, an overgrown grave hidden in the grounds, far too small for an adult...
Gwen soon falls pregnant and her husband is overjoyed, but she has little time to celebrate. In the delivery room the new mother is faced with a terrible choice, one she knows no one in her upper class set will understand - least of all Laurence. Forced to bury a secret at the heart of her marriage, Gwen is more isolated than ever. When the time comes, how will her husband ever understand what she has done?
The Tea Planter's Wife is a story of guilt, betrayal and untold secrets vividly and entrancingly set in colonial era Ceylon.

About the author

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT DINAH JEFFERIES'S BOOKS:

'A powerful story of love and loss that is utterly captivating. Dinah Jefferies skilfully captures this fragile moment of history in a complex and thrilling tale.'
Kate Furnivall - bestselling author of 'The Russian Concubine','The White Pearl' and several others.

'I LOVED it! Dinah Jefferies writes beautifully.'
Lucinda Riley - bestselling author of 'The Light Behind the Window' and several others.

'The Separation is as intimate as a kiss and as sharp as the blade of a knife.'
David Gillham - author of NYT bestseller 'City of Women'.

'The tears are still streaming down my face ... I have three words to describe the book: Captivating, Powerful and Passionate.'
Deborah Rodriguez - bestselling author of 'The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul'.

My Review

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin UK for sending me a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The author’s personal knowledge of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)shines through this book as she invokes all the senses to take you on a journey that you won’t forget. I have visited the Far East but not this particular part, yet found myself instantly transported there as I followed in the footsteps of our heroine, Gwen. I really admired the courage of those who settled in another country far from friends and family and not knowing what to expect. Set in the 1920s and 30s, the book touches on the growing dissatisfaction of the locals under British rule. This is just one thread, however, as the main story focuses on the marriage and pregnancy of Gwen and her new life as she joins her husband Lawrence. From the very beginning we are left in suspense about what happened to Lawrence’s first wife. It is not until the end that all is unraveled.  Cleverly told with some touches that I didn’t see coming, I read this book in a weekend as I didn’t want to put it down.

5/5