"THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY" is one of the best novels I've had the pleasure of reading this year. Sujata Massey, also known for her Rei Shimura mystery novels, is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. This is a rich, multi-layered, intense, thrilling story centered on the life of a young woman from West Bengal during the latter days of the British Raj. She began her life as Pom in a small village that was wiped out by an ocean wave, leaving her to cling to life on the highest rung of a lowly tree til she manages to draw the attention of a small rowing boat, which takes her to shore.

As a 10 year old orphan in 1930, Pom ends up in a British boarding school, where she (renamed Sarah) works as a servant and discovers she has a gift for languages. She learns to read and develops a passion for books and a remarkable facility in the English language, so much so that she can speak it like any well-heeled Briton. While at the boarding school, Sarah strikes up a friendship with Bidushi, an Indian girl of similar age from a well-to-do Brahmin family who struggles to learn English. Sarah helps Bidushi with her studies, and over time, their friendship grows, making them deeply bonded to one another.

Bidushi's family has made arrangements for her to marry Pankai, a fellow Brahmin who is studying law in London. The family encourages both Bidushi and Pankaj to maintain a correspondence. Bidushi shares Pankaj's letters with Sarah, and asks her help in writing letters in response to him. As a result, Sarah learns a great deal about Pankaj (who is among those Indians determined to achieve independence for their country from the British), and this proves to figure prominently in Sarah's later life. A life full of twists and turns that sees her forced out of the boarding school before she could complete her studies, and find refuge in Kharagpur. There she faces many challenges and experiences the darker, more sinister side of life before again, she finds she must flee. From Kharagpur, Sarah moves on to Calcutta in the late 1930s. There Sarah takes on a new identity, friends, work, and a deep, abiding commitment to the growing independence movement. The novel never flags. One you pick it up and read a few chapters, you're hooked.

I highly recommend "THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY" to everyone. It has an English/Hindi/Bengali reference guide that will further enrich your reading experience. And for those readers with a love for Indian cuisine, a few recipes are provided at novel's end under the title "A Taste of Old Calcutta."

"INDIA GRAY" is a collection of 4 stories of varying lengths ('Outnumbered at Oxford', 'The Ayah's Tale', 'India Gray', and 'Bitter Tea'), all of which are set in venues as diverse as 1919 Britain and the Asian subcontinent from the time of the British Raj to the early 21st Century.

Sujata Massey is the type of writer who has a rare skill in creating characters who are real and easily relatable to the reader, and in also educating the reader about the cultural nuances, history and relationships among people through economical, insightful prose. What is more: each story is centered around 4 remarkable women (Parveen Mistry, a law student at St. Hilda's College, Oxford; Menakshi Dutt, a young Bengali woman working as an ayah for a wealthy British family in 1920s Bengal; Kamala Lewes, a Bengali polyglot, married to a British civil official, and working for the Red Cross in a military hospital in Assam, India during the spring of 1945; and Shazia, a teenaged Pakistani living with her family in a village in NW Pakistan controlled by a Muslim fundamentalist), who --- despite the social and cultural restrictions of their time --- show remarkable resourcefulness and strength of character in dealing with a variety of challenging situations.

I so much enjoyed reading "INDIA GRAY" and felt pained after reading the last page. More please.

Several weeks ago, I joined a local reading club which is now reading this book. At that time, I glanced at a summary of the novel and at first sight, I wasn't sure that I would like it because I'm not a great fan of contemporary novels. But this one is set in Macau which, to me, hints of exoticism and mystery. So, I took up "The Ballad of a Small Player" and I was a few pages in when I became hooked on it.

The novel is centered on a British expatriate (and fugitive from justice) who is known as "Lord Doyle" at the baccarat tables. He is a shrewd (and at times reckless) gambler at the casinos who is set on "breaking the bank" and living life on his own terms. The author fleshes out "Lord Doyle" and some of his gambling confreres with spare and sparkling prose that, as a reader, held my attention throughout. There's so much more I'd like to say --- including shedding light on the relationship Doyle had with Dao Ming, a beautiful and enigmatic woman from Mainland China whom he met one night over a game of punto banco baccarat --- but that would giving too much of the story away. Suffice it to say, if you are a fan of Graham Greene and/or Dostoevsky, you'll savor reading "The Ballad of a Small Player." It's one of those novels that punches above its weight and is perfect for reading at any time.