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    The Sandalwood Tree: A Novel
    The Sandalwood Tree: A Novel
    The Sandalwood Tree: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Sandalwood Tree: A Novel

    Written by Elle Newmark

    Narrated by Justine Eyre

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 1947, American historian and World War II veteran Martin Mitchell wins a Fulbright Fellowship to document the end of British rule in India. His wife, Evie, convinces him to take her and their young son along, hoping a shared adventure will mend their marriage, which has been strained by war.

    But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857.

    Drawn to their story, Evie embarks on a mission to piece together her Victorian mystery. Her search leads her through the bazaars and temples of India and the dying society of the British Raj. Along the way, Martin's dark secret is exposed, unleashing a new wedge between the couple. As India struggles toward independence, Evie struggles to save her marriage, pursuing her Victorian ghosts for answers.

    Bursting with lavish detail and vivid imagery of Calcutta and beyond, The Sandalwood Tree is a powerful story about betrayal, forgiveness, fate, and love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 26, 2011
    ISBN9781452671475
    Author

    Elle Newmark

    Elle Newmark is the acclaimed author of The Book of Unholy Mischief.  She lived and worked in the hills north of San Diego.

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    Reviews for The Sandalwood Tree

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    • 3/5
      Maybe I’ve been reading too many classic novels recently, but I thought that this novel fell a bit short for me. I guess I was expecting lush descriptions of India, vivid descriptions of historical events, and great characters. Sadly, I was disappointed.The Sandalwood Tree is a split-time novel. One half of the novel focuses on an American, Evie, whose husband Martin comes to India on a Fulbright scholarship to document the end of the British Raj and the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947. One day, she finds a packet of old, illegible letters that documents the friendship between two Englishwomen, Adela and Felicity in 1856. The chapters then alternate between the two stories; Evie’s story focuses on the disintegration of her marriage, while Felicity goes to India as a member of the “Fishing Fleet,” young Englishwomen who went to India to find husbands once they’d failed to find husbands within two seasons of coming out. You can tell right off the bat from the tension in the beginning of each story that something big’s going to occur…Well, I thought it was an interesting idea, but the characters weren’t really as well rounded as I might have liked them to be. None of them was particularly likeable, though; Evie came off as a bit too modern for her time, and the two Victorian women were a bit too juvenile for my taste. As a result, I got bored pretty quickly; there’s nothing much that made this novel particularly enjoyable for me, so I couldn’t finish it. Still, I thought the idea was good, especially with the contrast between the Sepoy rebellion in one story and the end of the British Raj in the other. But if you want a much better, more authentic telling of the Sepoy rebellion, I’d recommend MM Kaye’s The Shadow of the Moon.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It is 1947. Americans Martin and Evie have come to India because historian Martin has won a Fullbright scholarship to study the Partition. Evie has insisted on coming along in the hopes of bridging the distance that has grown between them ever since Martin returned from the battlefields of Europe.Things don't go as Evie had hoped, however, as the distance between them seems to widen as they try to settle into their new surroundings.One day, as Evie is cleaning the bungalow in which they've been staying, she finds a tidy little packet of letters that had been hidden away behind a loose brick by one of the bungalow's long-ago tenants.In her loneliness and isolation, Evie becomes obsessed with the story of the two unconventional Victorian ladies who were the letters' correspondents. Adela and Felicity had come to India during the 1850's, ostensibly as part of the Raj's "fishing fleet", but in reality, in an effort to escape strict Victorian societal constraints.I loved The Sandalwood Tree. The writing flowed beautifully. The two stories were masterfully interwoven together with the backdrop, creating a gorgeous, luminous tapestry.I definitely give The Sandalwood Tree two thumbs up!
    • 4/5
      I read and reviewed this book as part of the Transworld Book Group.This is a lovely tale of India around the time of partition in 1947, and also in a time of unrest in 1857. A dual time narrative story, and one in which, unusually for me, I preferred the older story to the more recent one.Evie Mitchell, her husband, Martin, and their young son, Billy, have moved to India so that he can carry out research. Martin is deeply troubled by his experiences during World War II and their marriage is suffering as a result. When Evie finds letters hidden in the wall of their rented bungalow it takes her on a journey of discovery, both about the events of 1857 and also about her own situation.The 1857 story was fascinating to me. It involved two friends, Felicity and Adela, women doing their own thing in India. I loved all the letters and journal entries that formed this part of the book, and how that story was tied up in the end. The 1947 story was also good, although Evie's voice, as the narrator, didn't quite ring true, both for the period and also the way she came across sometimes. Billy was also very precocious for a five year old, and I don't think his voice was entirely convincing either. I must admit to being irritated by the number of pet names he had!I love books set in two different times, where there is a mystery to unravel, and this is one of those books. I felt the setting was very evocative, with the sights, sounds and smells being described very well. I believe the author visited India and saw it first-hand and I think it showed. On the whole this was a good read, and one which kept me interested all the way through.
    • 3/5
      This book was like reading two separate stories at the same time. One is the story of Evie and Martin in India during 1940s and the end of the British Raj and Partition. The other was the story of Felicity and Adele during the Sepoy Rebellion in India during the 1840s. Individually the stories were interesting, but they could easily have been told in two separate books.The history was interesting, but I would have preferred a little more of it.I enjoyed the book overall, but felt that sections of it just dragged.
    • 4/5
      There's so much about Elle Newmark's The Sandalwood Tree that I want to say. So, where do I start? This is not a simple story of a husband and wife struggling in their rapidly deteriorating marriage. This is not a simple story of a peek into lives that were lived one hundred years before Evie and Martin, when Evie unearths yellowing and tattered letters between Felicity and Adela, who lived in the Mitchell's rented house in the Victorian age the novel begins to hum with the sights and sounds of old India.I love books that tell two stories woven into one, I like flipping back and forth in time and space. Newmark brilliantly depicts the world of Martin and Evie as they record the end of the British Raj in India after WWII, and does anequally stunning job in painting for the readers, the world of Felicity Chadwick and Adela Winfield, set in the mid 1880s India and England. What a joy to read Newmark's vivid descriptions of these caracters' worlds and their lives. I remember, after the death of my dear Mother, reading letters she had written to friends and family. It was with complete amazement and with rapt attention that I sat cross legged on the floor of her bedroom, reading about her world, struggling to read her script, written with such excitement about her live. I read with equal amazement, the words that author Elle Newmark put down in Felicity and Adela's world. I am such a sucker for stories told in letter form! 84 Charing Cross Road is a long time favorite of mine.Not wanting to give too much away, as always, I want to add that in both story lines we find, mystery, love, joy, friendship, betrayal and ultimately...forgiveness. In The Sandalwood Tree, Elle Newmark crafts an almost perfect novel. There are virtually no unnecessary scenes, no sentences that don't paint a complete picture, and the plotting is so seamless that you completely suspend your disbelief!I say, go buy The Sandalwood Tree, download it...whatever you do, but read this book and share its story with everyone you know who loves a great book.I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars!! ARC provided to me by the publisher and in no way affect my review.
    • 5/5
      CoverI am absolutely infatuated with the colors on the cover of this book. I find them gorgeous and was drawn to them as soon as I opened up the envelope the book arrived in.Unless I missed something while reading, I'm not sure how the stairs correlate to the story ... unless it is metaphorical. Perhaps a woman at a crossroads? Should she climb the stairs to civility or turn away and head on her own path? Hhmmm ...PlotI've always enjoyed books where there's two different times and plots happening and then they're joined somehow towards the end. If well written, I find those types of stories intriguing and attention-grabbing. Does that mean this book was well written?Oh my gosh, yes! I loved this book. There was romance, political/societal tension, war, murder, mystery ... I think this book had every element possibly imaginable. This may seem like a lot of elements in one story, but the way Elle writes it makes the transitions seamless.Main CharactersEvie - Wife of Martin; Mother to Billy - She is confused by the change in her husband after the war ended. She couldn't understand his tendencies toward isolation, brusqueness and volatileness. She felt like giving up several times, but was taught patience and acceptance by the people of India.Martin - Husband to Evie; Father to Billy - He is a war veteran who is disappointed with himself and his actions during the war. He still loves Evie, but is unsure how to show her when he comes home from the war. He has come to India to write a historical thesis.Adela - Born in England, she has lead a very sheltered life. She becomes aware of her sexuality during an innocent encounter with a dear friend. She leaves England for India with the supposed hope of finding a husband. She really left to escape her parent's home and to experience true unbridled freedom to live how she chooses.Felicity - Born in India, Felicity is sent to England to acquire proper schooling. She lives with her host family and becomes great friends with the family's daughter. Upon returning to India, Felicity becomes involved in charities and meets a married Indian man whom she falls in love with.OverallElle Newmark has become one of my must-read authors thanks to The Sandalwood Tree. If you've never read an Elle Newmark novel like me and you enjoy intrigues, history, love stories and an intertwining of two different eras, then I would highly recommend you read The Sandalwood Tree.
    • 5/5
      I adored this book! After some misgivings, I am generally not a fan of mysteries, I read this on the recommendation of a friend. I am however a fan of books about India particularly those that deal with the British raj and subsequent independence and partition. This book moved easily between the days leading up to partition and Victorian India with parallel stories of an American woman living in the same hill station cottage as two Victorian women once occupied. I sometimes find this literary device to be confusing and contrived but not in this case. Ms.Newmark weaves the two stories together so skillfully that the transitions between past and present are seamless and very dependent on each other. Yes, the ending is perhaps a bit too neat and happy, but there's nothing wrong with that, is there? Simply put, a great read!
    • 4/5
      I'm part of the Transworld Book Group!Soon after WWII, an American family moves to India. Jewish-American Martin has returned to his studies in Indian history after fighting in Europe, and has won a Fullbright Scholarship to continue his research there. Britain is preparing to grant Indian independence, including partitioning the country into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, and the family are staying in a village near Simla, near the proposed borders. Martin will be documenting the end of British rule.Martin's wife Evie and their 5 year old son Billy come too, and Evie tells us her story in a first person narrative. She is keen to participate in a new adventure, and anxious to hold on to her marriage to a man troubled by his recent experiences. She finds a cache of letters between two women, written in the 1850s, and gets caught up in the story of two very close friends, Adela and Felicity - the letters leave Evie with some huge questions and she sets out to find out the answers. The story of Adela and her friend Felicity is told partly through the letters but also in a third person narrative. I found both the 20th and 19th century stories interesting. I really like historical fiction and having several stories (and time periods) revealed in one novel is a bonus. The Sandalwood Tree is nearly 500 pages, but it is a quick and engaging read.India in the novel is portrayed through the perceptions of two Western women, 20th century American Evie and 19th century English Adela. Evie describes in some detail the appearance of the rented bungalow that is to be the new family home and the surrounding village, and people including servants, their Indian landlord and some English colonials. Elle Newmark also describes the food that Evie and Martin eat, having decided to try to eat Indian food rather than the English nursery food the British colonials have.I found the 20th century story more memorable than the 19th century one, but the 19th century story is a moving and emotional tale of rule-breaking romances including lesbian relationships. However, Evie's first person narrative has more immediacy and is more dominant in the novel.I liked Evie's character a lot, open minded, always looking for a way to relate to the variety of people she meets, and anxious about having servants and about offending them. I do have some reservations - I don't believe a white American couple, even one in a mixed marriage (Evie is from a Catholic background, would have been quite so liberal and anti-racist in their outlook and I think maybe the author modelled Evie and her attitudes a little too much on herself. The best historical fiction involves engaging with the mindset of the time - even unconventional and rebellious characters will still be influenced by their society.Although she doesn't quite get under the skin of her characters, this is a terrific easy read and I really enjoyed it.An extra bonus in the edition of the novel I read is an interview with the author in which she discusses the historical fiction genre, the factual background of her story and the history of Partition, religious divisions in India, Indian food, travel and living in different places, and the Jewish uncle who fought in Europe in WWII. I love to know about writers' thoughts and influences for their writing. This is also valuable because sadly Elle Newmark died earlier this year - she was struggling with the disease that killed her while writing this novel, her second.Thank you to Transworld for sending me The Sandalwood Tree to review as part of their Challenge.
    • 5/5
      Rich in details and history, The Sandalwood Tree will keep the reader turning pages. A book that teaches while telling a great story is worth reading, and this book meets that criteria.

      Martin, Evie, and Billy leave Chicago to live in India while Martin, a historian, documents the end of the British Raj. As they settle into a small town amid brilliant color, strange customs, and agonizing poverty, the tapestry of the story begins.

      Against the wallpaper of a solid but troubled marriage and religious and political turmoil, Evie discovers a few letters secreted away in their rented bungalow. She seeks more information about the people in the letters from a local church. One scrap of information leads to another, along with some accidental, fortuitous finds, and the story of Adele and Felicity emerge. The year is 1947; the letters were written 90 years ago in the Victorian era.

      The dual stories of Evie's family in an increasingly war-ravaged, unstable land and young Adele and Felicity's growing up across continents alternate in the book. The characters are finely crafted by the author.

      The book engages the senses and emotions leaving the reader with drifts of the story long after it is read. I loved the book. It would make a good movie, if it's possible to fit so much into a movie.

    • 3/5
      The book is like a story within a story. The book begins with the framing story of a woman, Evie, in 1947, who accompanies her husband and young son to India with the dual purpose of seeking adventure and hoping to mend her failing marriage with a man just returned from World War II, broken. When she discovers a bundle of 90-year-old letters hidden in the wall during a cleaning frenzy, the second story of the friendship between Felicity and Adela is revealed. From there, Evie's story diverges from that of Felicity and Adela's as Evie struggles to find more evidence of the two other women's existence and uses her fascination as a distraction from the political turmoil occurring around her.The British are pulling out of India and separating the religious factions of Muslims and Hindus into the two countries of India and Pakistan, causing chaos and mayhem all over the country of India. The imagery and descriptions that Newmark fills the pages with are mesmerizing in their intensity and splendor. The colors, smells, and sounds have me half-falling in love with India to the point that I search for images online to match what I am reading to get a clearer picture of what the characters experience. Even though I struggled to stay interested in the plot for the first third of the book, the descriptions kept me reading and reading.Felicity and Adela's story begins from childhood, describing how Felicity was born in India, but fostered with Adela's family. The infamous husband hunt brought them both back to India through different means, though neither had any interest in a husband, for different scandalous reasons. Residing in the same home that Evie now occupies, Felicity and Adela shun the conventional life of an Englishwoman in India, instead adopting an independent lifestyle and embracing India in all its diverse beauty.Evie herself also seeks to shun what is expected of her, desiring to fully experience the culture of India all around her and use it to heal the problems in her own life. Eventually, she reconnects with the story of the two other women, even as major obstacles present themselves in both her private life and in the immediate villages. Letters take over the narration of Felicity and Adela's tale as Evie finds more to continue the story, instead of the author simply narrating what Evie can't find.On the whole, the novel was beautifully written and contained a worthwhile plot, though I struggled to stay interested at the beginning. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a mystery and craves the beauty of India.
    • 5/5
      Article first published as Book Review: The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark on Blogcritics.1947 is the year of Britain’s withdrawal from India; it is also a time of civil unrest. Planned Partition is set to happen even against the will of Gandhi. It is a dangerous time to both visitors as well as the differing factions in India. It is during this war-torn strife that Martin Mitchell wins a Fellowship to study in India. He is there to document the end of the 200 years of British Raj. Arriving with his wife Evie and son Billy they settle into their new home with care.Evie plans to use the time to work on her marriage, Martin is not the same man she married. The War in Europe changed him into an angry and introspective man. While Evie is cleaning and making the bungalow ready, she finds some letters hidden behind a brick in the chimney.Why are they hidden? Just that question alone creates a mystery that envelopes Evie's curiosity.There is something about the letters and the two young women that intrigue her. Curious as to why the letters were hidden, it makes her want to know more about these young women. Dated from 1846-1851 they follow the lives of Adela Winfield and Felicity Chadwick. There is something fascinating about reading how life was in a prior time.As her life with Martin continues to erode, she immerses herself in the mystery and romance that becomes clear through the writing of these long ago notes. The small parcel of letters she finds is not enough and she decides to make a quest to find whatever information she can to learn their true story. Beginning at the cemetery, it guides her to the church where parish records are kept. It is here in the records she finds further letters and records of the lives of Adela and Felicity. Further search for information takes her into the bazars and temples of India, looking for more. It is during this further search that she learns of a dark secret. This secret only further drives a wedge in her marriage.Will her marriage ever be the same? In The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark, we follow the lives of the Mitchell family as well as the lives and times of the two young Englishwomen, Adela and Felicity. The letters are wonderful and well detailed taking you back to an earlier time and place. As you follow their story, you forget they are not in the here and now, and like Evie you want to know more. The details are scintillating and their actions are bold for the times, yet they demand your admiration. From their lives in England to their relocation to India, they remain fast and true to the end. They are the best of friends with a secret that could certainly put them at risk. Will it be worth it?Evie follows a path, fraught with danger and intrigue to find the answers to the lives of these young women putting herself and her family in danger in the process. Evie is a strong and caring young woman with a heart of gold. But she is beginning to lose her patience with her husband and it makes her reckless. Her relationship with her son is amazing. Newmark has developed a character with humor as well as panache. She has different nicknames for Billy that she brings out frequently sharing a charming and unique side of her that draws you in.Martin has a secret and is unwilling to share the burden with Evie. It eats at him and shadows everything he is and longs to be. He is in an obvious self-destructive phase, and yet periodically you can see the man behind the pain. He is flawed and yet remarkable, but can he recover from the shadow that haunts him?Billy is absolutely charming and wins your heart with his conversation and actions. He is an extremely bright child and is able to twist everyone he meets around his finger. The danger around the family is very real and creates a tenseness, an uneasiness hard to overcome.The backdrop is beautiful, and Newmark does a wonderful job of capturing the sights and sounds of India and shares them with us, making you feel like you are there in that place at that time. She weaves danger and suspense throughout the story, creating an irresistible and fast-paced read. We are there with Evie when she is researching and I found I wanted to know about the Englishwomen's lives as much as she did. It is a story in a story and yet written with a wonderful clarity, a sassiness and verve that pulls you in and does not let go until the very end. Even then, you find yourself thinking about the characters and wanting more.This is a wonderful work of fiction and would be an exceptional book for a book club and reading group. It is a must-have for your library, a book you can take out and read over, and due to the intricate detail you would find information you may have missed the first time. This is an remarkable story, with a setting you can feel and characters right out of life.This book was received free from the publisher. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.
    • 4/5
      Last year I waffled back and forth over whether or not to accept a review copy of Elle Newmark's debut novel, The Book of Unholy Mischief. The cover copy mentioned some things that made me leery of reading it. Eventually I went ahead and said yes because the things that intrigued me about the book overcame my qualms. And I have rarely been happier that I took the chance. So when The Sandalwood Tree was made available, I jumped at the chance to read it. The fact that it is set in India in the final year of the British Raj and follows the life of a woman whose marriage is under intense pressure and who finds and becomes obsessed with the Victorian letters of two British women who lived in her home a hundred years prior made it almost tailor-made to my tastes. And like The Book of Unholy Mischief, this is an expansive and engrossing tale.Evie and Martin used to have a strong and happy marriage. Then Martin went off to Germany to fight and came home a different man. Now their marriage is crumbling. So when Martin, an historian, is offered a Fulbright scholarship to go to India to document the end of the British Raj, Evie fights to accompany him with their 5 year old son Billy in the hope that a new place will help them find their way back to the open and loving relationship they once had. But India is in turmoil, facing Partition, and tension runs high, exacerbating Martin's fears and making Evie feel constrained and resentful. And while they are in a fairly safe place, removed from the bulk of the religious violence breaking out elsewhere, there are menaces even in this British summer outpost.As Martin goes about adopting native costume and habits and courting danger, he forbids Evie to move freely herself, an order she disobeys, driven by her curiousity about a set of letters from the mid-1800's that she found secreted behind a brick in the kitchen wall. Wanting to know more about Felicity and Adela, Evie embarks on a search to learn more about them, their circumstances, and what could possibly send at least one of these Englishwomen to India in the midst of the Sepoy Rebellion. Slowly Evie pieces together the story of Felicity and Adela, their lives and loves, and the long-forgotten scandal(s) swirling about them.Evie and Martin's marriage continues to founder and fail as Evie reads about these two unusual Victorian women who pushed so hard against the constraints of the historical time in which they lived. As the women declared, they "lived for joy." Evie wants desperately to live for joy also, trying, pushing, and demanding an opening back into Martin's life and mind.This is a sweeping love story on so many fronts and involving so many character combinations: the love of husband and wife, the love between illicit lovers, the love of parent for child, the love between friends, and unrequited love. Even as the country itself is being torn asunder, all of these unifying relationships are playing out on the page and serving as a path for Evie and Martin to find their way back to each other.The place is beautifully rendered in this novel. India and her overwhelming color and lushness stand out even as Newmark has captured the insularity, racism, and surprising compassion of the late 1940's British ex-pat community there. Making Evie and Martin American allows them to stand out as different from the start and enables Newmark to have Evie interact a bit more with the Indian community than would otherwise have been believable. The parallel stories twine together nicely and keep the reader engaged with both plots. Each chapter starts with a year heading making it easy to know when Evie and Martin's story flips to Felicity and Adela's story. Despite this though, the story must be narrated by a modern day Evie based on a few comments (a remark about Vietnam vets is just one example) in the narration. This is rather disconcerting as the sensibility of these comments is at odds with the post-WWII society during which the tale is set. This only happens a few times in the very beginning of the book and then the incongruous and modern Evie disappears, which is all to the good. The ending of the book is a bit rushed, predictable, and a little too easy but the ride to that point makes it forgivable. Over all, a very enjoyable read and I'll definitely look forward to Newmark's next book.
    • 5/5
      Elle Newmark is a master story teller. I was not sure about this book but once I started reading it I could not put it down.The characters were very memorable and vibrant and the story stays with you long after you have read the last page.I'm not sure if she is currently working on another book but she is definitely on my list of favorite authors.
    • 4/5
      It’s 1947, and Evie’s marriage has been failing ever since her husband returned from World War II, shellshocked and haunted. He wins a grant to document the end of the British Raj in India, so he takes his wife and young son to live in the small village of Masoorla. Behind a loose brick in the kitchen, Evie discovers letters between two young women written in the 1850s. Intrigued and perhaps more than a little in need of distraction, she searches out more information about the correspondents and what happened to them. The interwoven tales at the beginning and end of the British Raj fascinated me, as did the candid descriptions of life in colonial India. I loved most of the characters, and while at times the story was just heartbreaking, I had trouble putting it down. I had to know what happened to Adela and Felicity, whether Evie would leave, if Martin would be killed in an uprising. The ending was perhaps a little too tidy, but it was very sweet and satisfying nonetheless. I closed the book with a smile on my face, glad to have read it. That’s really all I can ask for in a novel.
    • 3/5
      I couldn't help kinda sorta feeling that this book was intentionally crafted to appeal to Sarah Waters fans. But my feeling could be attributed to the fact that I had Waters' 'The Little Stranger next on my queue, and was impatient to start it.
      The Sandalwood Tree isn't as good as Waters - but it's still an enjoyable book.; I very much enjoyed the vivid depictions of rural India. However, I felt that the connection between the American woman in India in 1947 and the Victorian lady in the same location in the mid-1800's was a bit forced (the various discoveries of the earlier woman's letters &c became progressively less believable),
      I also personally would have preferred more glimpses of events from a local's perspective, rather than only from the foreigners' - it would have made a nice contrast. And the focus on the Americans' marital troubles got a bit Lifetime-y at times, and detracted from the more interesting (to me) social issues that were also brought up by the story.

      (Oh, just a note - I love the cover. It looks like an ad for a Merchant Ivory movie... it's why I picked it up.)
    • 4/5
      A good immersive story set in India just before Partition. Martin Mitchell has returned from WWII seriously damaged, emotionally, and he takes his wife and young son to the Indian countryside to work on his PhD dissertation on the subject of how the coming withdrawal of British Colonialists and the separation of the continent into two nations according to religion is affecting its people. Evie Mitchell hopes the complete change, and what she imagines as the romance of an exotic new world will help heal both her husband's invisible wounds and their now troubled marriage. A chance discovery of some old letters between two Victorian women who previously occupied the bungalow she and Martin are living in sends Evie off on a research mission of her own, to find out more about the lives of those women, who obviously shared her love for their adopted land. Engrossing, satisfying, a few surprises, but basically a comfort read.Review written September 2020
    • 5/5
      Spell Binding ........what a beautiful Book it is ...Loved it
    • 3/5
      After reading several very serious books I welcomed this as a lighter read. The story takes place on two different narrative threads. The first in is 1947 where a young American couple have come to India on the verge of Independence. Evie and her husband, Martin have a troubled marriage due to Martin's "combat fatigue" (what today would be diagnosed as PTSD) and Evie hopes that a change of surroundings from Chicago to exotic India will help their marriage.The other narrative thread is of two British Victorian women who are in India during the Sepoy Mutiny. Their story is discovered when Evie finds some of their correspondence hidden inside the chimney piece in her kitchen. Intrigued, she is determined to find out more about them.The weaving to the stories back and forth is not totally successful and some of the plot lines defy the realities of the time periods. Still, it's an easy and relaxing read.
    • 5/5
      “….death steals everything but our stories.” Martin was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study history at the University of Delhi in 1946, so his family, Evaleen, and Billy go along with him to India. The university placed them in a small bungalow where Felicity Chadwick and Adela Winfield had lived nearly 100 years before. Adela left parts of her journal hidden in parts of the house and grounds. Martin came home with a secret from World War II and Eva keeps her discovery of the journal a secret. All these secrets cause family problems, but there are also problems with the end of the British Raj and Eva discovers that Felicity and Adela had their own problems. Newmark does an excellent job of following two stories switching back and forth between the two. While the plot of the story is actually a fairly simple story the vivid writing makes up for it. The sight, sounds, smells, and culture of India are all vividly written about so that it is easy to imagine you are a part of the story. This is an easy, fun read, a great story.
    • 4/5
      This is a lovely and informative novel. The setting is India, both 1947 and 1858. There are five love stories in a way.. There's the heroine, Evie and Martin. They are married with a five year old boy. Their marriage was wonderful until Martin went to serve in WW2... now things are falling apart. Evie thought that coming to India would bring them closer together, but they have simply "exported" their unhappiness... In order to save their marriage, Martin must get rid of his inner demons and both of them must learn to live for joy..Evie finds old letters and a journal from 1858 chronicling the lives of Felicity and Adela. Adela has a love story.. Adela was a lesbian in a time when lesbianism was frowned upon.. Adela had an affair with a maid in England despite her great love for Felicity... Felicity is in love with India and has a dangerous affair of her own, with an Indian man. That's three love stories. The last two are different kinds of love stories, love between mother and child. Throughout the novel, I was impressed with the bond between Evie and her son, Billy. The book really shows how strong a mother's love is and how far she will go for her child. I loved Billy and his, "Aw, nuts." What a cute kid.Adela experiences motherhood in her own way... with a child not of her blood. The bond is there, nevertheless.In the middle of all these wonderful stories is the story of India.. of British rule, of Ghandi, of Partition and the chaos resulting from it. Partition was when Britain withdrew their rule and divided the country between Hindus and Muslims, India and Pakistan. I found myself pondering this... Is it better to live divided and possibly breed hate and resentment or to live together and learn to love one another?I found this educational regarding Indian history and I felt the book had a strong moral throughout: Whether in relationships or life in general, life is what you MAKE IT. You have a choice: live with joy and forgiveness or live with hate and resentment.Four stars only because Adela's journal entries were dull at times.I received this ARC from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      I was drawn to read this novel because I was interested in learning more about the history and culture of India. Admittedly, I was not so interested in studying history during my school days so I have been selecting novels that blend history with mystery and fiction. “The Sandalwood Tree” was a great choice because I’ve come away with a much better understanding of a place that seems so far away and foreign to me. Elle Newmark does an excellent job telling 2 different (but intertwined) stories that are based on 2 different but formative time periods in India’s history. The first, and more recent story, is that of Evie and Martin who travel to India with their young son, Billy in 1946 so Martin can document the end of the British Raj as part of his Ph.D. dissertation. What they encounter is a country filled with apprehension and uncertainty as new borders are defined to partition Hindus and Muslims, thus creating 2 nations, India and Pakistan. During this period, Evie is struggling with her relationship with Martin, who has become unattached and distant following his return from World War II. As part of her housecleaning, Evie uncovers letters and journals that document the lives and what was determined to be an ‘unconventional’ relationship between 2 women (Felicity and Adela) during the 1850’s, who happened to live in the same house as Evie and Martin. The journals bring to life the struggles of India during their ‘War of Independence’ when there was an uprising of the sepoys (Indian citizens who were commissioned to fight for the British military).Through her journey of trying to piece together the mystery of the lives of Felicity and Adela, Evie comes to understand that in the end, what we have are our stories. In reading the story of Felicity and Adela, Evie is able to gain the resilience she needs to help her husband face the secrets that have been part of his World War II experience, so they can re-establish their lives together.The sights, sounds and smells of India are beautifully portrayed by Elle Newmark in her telling of this story. I dream one day of experiencing the landscape of the Himalayan mountains and visit this foreign land – someday, I would like this adventure to be part of my story.One of my favorite passages comes from Evie’s summation of the Indian people that portrays their strength and resilience:“I wondered how they’d (the Indian people) been persuaded to play such a menial role in their own country. I had an idea that their acquiescence had to do with the way they quietly survived waves of invaders by bending rather than breaking. The Aryans, the Turks, the Portuguese, the Moghuls, and the British had all swept through their subcontinent, and yet India remained Indian. They kept their heads down and outlasted everyone.”
    • 4/5
      The strength of this novel is the descriptions of the sights and sounds and smells of India. Absolutely atmospheric, made me want to be there. Also liked the history of Gandhi, Partition and the political maneuverings between Great Britain and India, there was much I didn't know. Two alternate stories, one from the 1940's and one following the lives of two women a decade earlier. Great easy to follow writing and the story lines were interesting. All in all a very good read. When I went to look up further info on this author I found she had passed away last year from a long illness. She did have a few earlier books that I will go back and read.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book - nice story, good writing, decent amount of history - but I didn't love it. As historical fiction goes I prefer a lot more history and a lot more complexity. This seems more like your basic love story set in two different times in India, rather than a piece of historical fiction about a time period in India. I wish the author had stuck with the 1947 storyline, the late 1800's storyline seemed a bit forced and less compelling than the former and the connection between the two stories felt kind of strained. In retrospect this reads a bit like two novels that got mashed into one - an action that didn't do either story a lot of good. To her credit, however, Ms. Newmark does know how to tell a story, even when it's not exactly what I thought it should be.
    • 5/5
      “Death steals everything but our stories.”It’s the story of Evie Mitchell, who is in India with her husband in 1947. Martin is documenting history in action during the Partition on a Fulbright scholarship; Evie keeps herself making their little bungalow spotless and teaching English to a few local children. One day, she finds a concealed bundle of letters hidden away in the wall of the bungalow. While she can’t interpret very much of them, the reader is given access to a second storyline – the tale of two girls raised as sisters. Felicity leaves Adela in England and makes her way back to India where she was born (and where we know she will leave the letters).I adored this. It seemed to be just the right mix of exotic lands, adventure, mystery and family life/romance/interpersonal conflict to tick all my boxes. (Other recent successes in this vein – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Bel Canto) And the language! A brief selection of quotes for you:On the discovery and investigation of some ancient letters: “The letters were personal, and trying to fill in the blanks felt like peering into these people’s lives uninvited. I struggled with a brief pang of guilt before reminding myself that the letters were dated 1854 and the people concerned were long past caring.”On marriage: “I remembered when we had shared joy as easily as breathing” “That was the beginning of us being smashed and remade with something of the other in each of us” “I’d lost my best friend and I missed him like fire.”On Catholicism: “It occurred to them that my Catholicism might seem as arcane to them as their Judaism did to me. For me, the pageant of Byzantine robes and chanting in a dead language, the drama of tortured martyrs, virgin birth and crucifixion had been worn thin and made bland by repetition.”And one of my favourite little comic moments (for reference – Evie has only just discovered that Habib speaks English):“‘Oh, Mr Mitchell doesn’t care for eggplant.’‘Of course not, Madam. Eggplant is a useless vegetable. A mistake I am making with this vegetable. I will take back. The merchant should not even be selling such useless vegetables, isn’t it?’‘But last night you said eggplant was the king of vegetables.’Habib regarded me with pity for not understanding something so simple. ‘Madam,’ he said, ‘for you I am working, not for the eggplant. What good would it be doing me to be disagreeing with you and agreeing with the eggplant?’” The dual storyline worked very well here (of course the strands are united at the end, but not as I thought they would be), much as in Maggie O’Farrell’s The Hand That First Held Mine. I loved the Victorian characters, although my loyalties flickered back and forth between the two Victorian girls. Newmark has clearly done her research carefully and it shows. In the 1947 thread, I wasn’t much of a fan of the husband, but Evie was wonderful – impulsively adventurous, a sweet and loving mother, a young wife struggling in a marriage that is no longer the one she entered, determined to see India and experience it properly, unlike the colonial wives at the Club, with their trifle and cricket matches and G&Ts.Evie could be slow sometimes too (annoying, in one who was supposed to be so smart). The conflict is well built and perpetrated, and the scenes with Evie and her son are sweet, but I was a bit disappointed in the resolution to the conflict – it seemed so flat suddenly.But occasional ditzy moments from Evie and Martin’s sullenness were the only things tempering my very positive feelings about this charming cross-temporal and continental adventure.
    • 3/5
      A nice story about a mixed faith couple (he's Jewish, she's Christian) who go to India just as Partition is to take effect in the 1940s. The flashbacks to the 2 English women who occupied the cottage in the 1850s is the best part: the lesbian who has to flee England because of the shame and the white woman who has a secret relationship between with a Sikh. The way the modern women pieces together their story keeps you reading but it's all a little too convenient, with too many bits of the diary found in the most obscure places. And the tidy resolution to the American couple's relationship problems is not only predictable but way too rushed in the last few of pages. Obviously, another case of the author having a page limit and needing to tie up loose ends.