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The Alien Sky
By the same author as "The Raj Quartet", this novel is set during the dying days of British rule in India. It centres on Tom Gower and his wife Dorothy, who, unbeknown to him, is half Indian. The effects of this revelation on her husband and their friends form the basis of this novel.
Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Paul Scott
175 books167 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Paul Mark Scott was an English novelist best known for his tetralogy The Raj Quartet. In the last years of his life, his novel Staying On won the Booker Prize (1977). The series of books was dramatised by Granada Television during the 1980s and won Scott the public and critical acclaim that he had not received during his lifetime.
Born in suburban London, Scott was posted to India, Burma and Malaya during World War II. On return to London he worked as a notable literary agent, before deciding to write full time from 1960. In 1964 he returned to India for a research trip, though he was struggling with ill health and alcoholism. From the material gathered he created the novels that would become The Raj Quartet. In the final years of his life he accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Tulsa, where much of his private archive is held.
Paul Mark Scott was an English novelist best known for his tetralogy The Raj Quartet. In the last years of his life, his novel Staying On won the Booker Prize (1977). The series of books was dramatised by Granada Television during the 1980s and won Scott the public and critical acclaim that he had not received during his lifetime.
Born in suburban London, Scott was posted to India, Burma and Malaya during World War II. On return to London he worked as a notable literary agent, before deciding to write full time from 1960. In 1964 he returned to India for a research trip, though he was struggling with ill health and alcoholism. From the material gathered he created the novels that would become The Raj Quartet. In the final years of his life he accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Tulsa, where much of his private archive is held.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2015
A short novel which is a good supplement to Paul Scott's better known Raj Quartet series. While none of the characters in the main series make an appearance, the themes of racism and classism are explored effectively by making Joe Mckendrick, an American and an outsider as the main protagonist.
Like the Raj Quartet books, female characters play a key role in the story while the novel also touches on the plight of Eurasians who form their own sense of identity within the context of exclusion and discrimination by both Europeans and Indians. The story follows a brisk pace which are punctuated by some beautiful sentences which invoke both a sense of nostalgia and inevitability of the march of time.
"The cheating was part of the camouflage concealing the secret. He smile and said goodbye, and held out his hand half hoping that the gesture would strip the camouflage away, ...shook his hand and looked him straight in the face. An all the look meant was - goodbye. goodbye - Joe McKendrick about to depart India
Like the Raj Quartet books, female characters play a key role in the story while the novel also touches on the plight of Eurasians who form their own sense of identity within the context of exclusion and discrimination by both Europeans and Indians. The story follows a brisk pace which are punctuated by some beautiful sentences which invoke both a sense of nostalgia and inevitability of the march of time.
"The cheating was part of the camouflage concealing the secret. He smile and said goodbye, and held out his hand half hoping that the gesture would strip the camouflage away, ...shook his hand and looked him straight in the face. An all the look meant was - goodbye. goodbye - Joe McKendrick about to depart India
July 27, 2021
A good solid read about the final days of the British in India,a subject Scott returned to time and time again.This book explores the attitudes of a number of British and Indians to each other as India becomes independent.Strange to read such offensive language and attitudes ,seventy years after the event,which today would be frowned upon but is true to its time.Worth a read but obviously not up to his masterpiece “The RajQuartet”
September 29, 2016
Excellent read; strong characters as typical of Scott; a gripping story set in the penultimate days of the British Raj in 1947 (coincidentally the year of my birth). I couldn't put this book down.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews