The House at the Edge of the Jungle
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
When Victor Cartwright is sent to Malaya on a business trip, he invites his sister, Isabel, to go with him. Isabel, haunted by memories of her childhood in the jungle, has always longed to return to the country where she and Victor were born. She was six years old and Victor a baby when they were evacuated back to England just hours before Malaya fell to the Japanese in 1942. But their parents were left behind, their fate never known. While Victor accepts that their parents met the same end as many others in those last days of the Empire, Isabel is sure there is more to the story.
In Kuala Lumpur, on a visit to the house where they lived before the Japanese came, the house Isabel has dreamed of for so long, she begins to recall those dim and distant days. The house is full of ghosts for her, exotic and troubling, and when Victor meets with an accident there, Isabel is convinced it holds some terrible secret. She sets off alone to explore the enigma of her parents's lives, and through Oliver Bailey, an Englishman who once knew them, and an even more surprising figure from the past, she finally unravels the long hidden mysteries.
Mary Morgan's The House at the Edge of the Jungle is a fascinating tale of past and present.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1942, Japan invaded Malaya and forced many of the British expatriates living there to serve in prison camps. Though some escaped to England, others disappeared, never to be heard of again. Victor and Isabel Cartwright were among the lucky--they were evacuated with a group of other children just hours before the Japanese reached Kuala Lumpur. Thirty-one years later, caustic Victor must return to Malaya on business. He reluctantly invites spirited Isabel to come along, for, despite his belief that the past is gone, she is desperate to find traces of the parents they left behind. When Victor breaks his leg during a visit to their old house, the accident secures Isabel's belief that their parents' spirits are trying to communicate with her; and now, with Victor recuperating in the hospital, she is free to solve the familial enigma herself. Enter Oliver Bailey, Victor's colleague, who joins Isabel as she traipses from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur searching for clues. Their findings intrigue even doubtful Victor, and when a surprising character from the siblings' past reappears, the puzzle pieces start locking into place. Featuring a strong coming-of-age angle, this is a well-written, deftly structured story of cryptic family ties, from the author of Willful Neglect.
