The Birds of Paradise

From the author of The Raj Quartet, a coming-of-age tale about a boy and his childhood friendships with a British diplomat’s daughter and the son of a Raj.

The Birds of Paradise is set in India when the British Raj still seemed a paradise, but a paradise that boy comes to recognize as already lost. As Scott weaves together themes of political and personal history, he makes us feel how the protagonist identifies with the beautiful, mysterious India of the Raj. With a keen eye for character and graceful prose, Scott captures the reverie of a youth complete with parades of elephants, garden parties, and the titular birds of paradise, who are stuffed trophies of an Indian prince, kept as decoration in a gilded cage. When the boy is sent away to England, he experiences his exile as both the personal wound of abandonment and the foreshadowing of the Partition.

Winner of the Booker Prize

Praise for The Birds of Paradise

“A rare literary bird, a novel that in a short space recreates a man’s lifetime. Using exotic backgrounds, it manages to say something useful about growing up—a process that only children believe takes place mainly in childhood.” —Time

“Scott’s vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver crosshatching the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy.” —Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review

“One of the best novelists to emerge from Britain’s silver age.” —Robert Towers, Newsweek

“Far more even than E. M. Forester, in whose long literary shadow he has to work, Paull Scott is successful in exploring the provinces of the human heart.” —Life