Title: The Letter
Author: Sylvia Atkinson
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
ISBN: 9781467880824
Pages: 332
Genre: Family & Relationships / Divorce & Separation
Reviewed By: Krista Schnee
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
For Margaret, old age had brought a welcome respite from her long years of work. Safe at home, among her belongings and memories, she did not expect the letter to arrive. This letter from her grandchild, however, brings unexpected feelings and complications into her life as she attempts to explain to her daughter the details of her marriage to an Indian student before the War as well as her later estrangement from her family. Although she had been aware of her mother’s first marriage, Elizabeth wants to understand what happened to her mother so many years ago.
After hearing from her children as well as her grandchildren, Margaret decides to tell her daughter about her experiences in India. Margaret begins with her life before the War, that of a youthful infatuation with an Indian student, a man she would come to call “Ben.” His knowledge of the world and obvious sophistication sweeps her up into his embrace, leading her to barely passing her exams along with an unplanned pregnancy. Ben soon visits Margaret’s family to ask for her hand in marriage, but her parents quickly reject him. Faithful to her child’s father, Margaret leaves her childhood home to marry Ben and leave Scotland for India.
Once she begins her life in India, Margaret faces a growing isolation due to her separation from her family along with differences in language, culture, and religion. Ben rarely visits her and the children, leaving Margaret to build a life in a strange country. She soon realizes that Ben is not the passionate lover that she once knew, but rather an aristocratic and often harsh husband. His marital indiscretions gradually become obvious, and the divide between them grows greater.
As the War engulfs Europe and the Far East, Ben leaves to support the British Army and Margaret gains a position as a nurse. The small moments that provide her with a break from routine would introduce her to her future love, Tommy. They meet and talk for a day, giving each of them a love that would sustain them both through difficult times. For Margaret, that would be long hours of work and a divorce from Ben. As a foreigner in India, she holds no power, and so she is separated from her children. Only her strength and love for them would allow her to survive the trials that would come as she seeks to make her own life in India and attempts to reunite with her beloved Tommy.
In The Letter, Sylvia Atkinson writes the fictionalized lives of her parents, two people who survived both cultural prejudice and the disastrous effects of war. Their tale sweeps across multiple continents and time periods, offering the reader a unique insight into the experiences of British citizens in India during the war. In this aspect, The Letter is a valuable resource for those readers seeking a better understanding of India before and after its independence from Britain. Also with its story of love lost and found, with families separated by culture and war, Atkinson’s book is simply a fascinating, epic romance.
Sylvia Atkinson’s The Letter would be appropriate for both those researching the War as well as those seeking an engrossing romantic novel that happens to be based on the all too true lives of a British family. In her writing, Atkinson avoids long explanatory paragraphs that so often weight down the action of similar books; she handles the pacing with a deft hand while also giving the reader evocative descriptions of countries and cultures that vary in many ways. Indeed, she has managed to write a novel that teaches but also entices. Any adult reader would find Sylvia Atkinson’s The Letter to be a fascinating read, as I highly recommend it.
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