A House Called Askival

by Merryn Glover

A stunning and beguiling debut set in India, with a dual narrative, one in the past just after Partition, and the other in the present day

James Connor is a man who, burdened with guilt following a tragic event in his youth, has dedicated his life to serving India. Ruth Connor is his estranged daughter who, as a teenager, always knew she came second to her parents' missionary vocation and rebelled, with equally tragic consequences. After 24 years away, Ruth finally returns to Askival, the family home in Mussoorie, a remote hill station in the Northern State of Uttarakhand, to tend to her dying father. There she must face the past and confront her own burden of guilt if she is to cross the chasm that has grown between them. In this extraordinary and assured debut, Merryn Glover draws on her own upbringing as a child of missionary parents in Uttarakhand to create a sensitive, complex, and epic journey through the sights, sounds, and often violent history of India from Partition to the present day.

Genres: India, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Adult, Family

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 16, 2014

Reviews

[Aditi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A man's daughter is his heart. Just with feet, walking out in the world.”

---- Mat Johnson, an American author


Merryn Glover, a debut author, pens her extraordinary book, A House Called Askival, that tells two stories of a father and a daughter in two different timelines that run parallel like the beautiful hills in Mussoorie- a hill station in India, where the story is set. This heart-touching story provides a stunning outlook as well as the most remarkable view on my very own country and it's enriching history.


Synopsis:

James Connor is a man who, burdened with guilt following a tragic event in his youth, has dedicated his life to serving India. Ruth Connor is his estranged daughter who, as a teenager, always knew she came second to her parents' missionary vocation and rebelled, with equally tragic consequences. After 24 years away, Ruth finally returns to Askival, the family home in Mussoorie, a remote hill station in the Northern State of Uttarakhand, to tend to her dying father. There she must face the past and confront her own burden of guilt if she is to cross the chasm that has grown between them. In this extraordinary and assured debut, Merryn Glover draws on her own upbringing as a child of missionary parents in Uttarakhand to create a sensitive, complex, and epic journey through the sights, sounds, and often violent history of India from Partition to the present day.


James and Ruth, resident of a small hill station in India, have their own stories to tell in Glover's debut, A House Called Askival. The father, James, is lamenting on a past mistake and everyday the guilt is eating him up bit-by-bit, on the same time, Ruth, too, who has an estranged relationship with her father, is back in her family home after 24years due to see to her dying father, who too is facing her own past ghosts to confront the present. The stories stretch from James' childhood period during the Partition to his marriage to his daughters' birth to Ruth's childhood when to falling in love during the Anti-Sikh riots to her leaving home in India, which are told between two generations where two souls, being the victims of two historic events of Indian history, are on a path to enlightened self by making peace wit their haunted past.

After reading the book, I had a hard time in believing whether Merryn Glover is first time author, because I can bet that many seasoned authors too can't reproduce this masterpiece with perfect amount of emotions and intricate descriptions of India. There are authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitava Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Neel Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, etc who have brought alive this country with rich descriptions through their stories, now after reading this book, I would gladly put Merryn Glover's name on the same list of authors who could represent India so vividly with it's colors, scent and culture along with the history.

The writing style is fantastic and is layered with deep evocative emotions. Moreover, the elegant prose proves to be a perfect setting for this book. The narrative is rich with emotions and deeply moving. The book is based on many different themes as well as aspects of our lives. Since Ruth's family was a Christian Missionary settled in India, hence the backdrop of faith and preaching is very high in the book, that only proves to be a point of enlightenment for the readers. Unfortunately, this rich family drama moves at a snail's pace, but that did not deter my interest from the story.

The characters are all intensely developed that reflect a deep hue of myriad emotions, that are developed with lots of depth through their back stories. Both the characters suffered from their own personal guilt from the past and carried them with sadness into their present days, but by opening doors to the past only they could make peace with those guilt, hence the author left a huge deal of space for the characters to grow within the story. Moreover, the supporting characters are too very well developed where some manage to leave an impressionistic mark even after the end of the story.

The background of Mussourie is vividly captured by the author in this story, from the Mussoorie's trademark boarding school type of life in the picturesque landscape of this hill station in India. The language, the food, everything brings out the visual imagery as well as sensory feel of the whole setting. The landscape is strikingly drawn by the author that only made me feel like taking a trip down to the hills with my own eyes. I've been to Mussoorie so I could relate to some of the stories as well as minute details of the hills. Overall, this is a must read book which is rich in descriptions that contains a poignant as well as entertaining story.

Verdict: Take a trip down to India by grabbing a copy of this engrossing book now.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Merry Glover's publicist for providing me with a copy of the book, in return for an honest review.

[Ian Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tears. This extraordinary, gorgeous and tumultuous book of cooking and violence and boarding school and beetles and communion and death and love and faith commands no less. And so I wept. Exquisitely observed and intelligently crafted, no other book has captured me in quite the same way - a magnificent immersion in the modern history of India, premodern mission, and the hill station of Mussoorie. Astonishing that this is Merryn's first novel. Most surely not the last.

[Christiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect all that much from this book as it was a Kindle deal of the month offer (and those aren’t usually the crème de la crème, to put it mildly) but I was very pleasantly surprised.

It tells the story of three generations of an American Christian missionary family in India and it’s a gripping tale in every respect. It touches on the history of India (the terrible upheaval of partition and the violence in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination by one of her Sikh bodyguards), the different religions as represented by the students of a boarding school in Mussoorie, family relationships, love, faith and the loss of it, guilt and forgiveness. There is a great cast of convincing characters and gorgeous descriptions of Mussoorie and Indian life.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I find intriguing in this book is that not only does it deeply resonate to those who have lived this experience (of which I am one), it takes our (somewhat, though never fully) shared experiences and makes it universal, of interest to a much broader audience, and in doing so validates that experience in a way that "talking about it" has never done.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading the book as I know the author and the authors family and well acquainted with Mussoorie where the novel is set. I was not disappointed and enjoyed he twists and turns of the story along with the twists zinc turns of the mountain paths. Combines missionary lives, boarding school , some interfaith issues set in context of troubling dark times in India!

[Tripfiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

“India… conquered the foreigner first through the senses, and only later claimed the mind”

I took this book with me on a recent trip to India and was enthralled by the story unfolding on the pages in the novel. I then looked up at my surroundings to find that the experiences on the paper continued and echoed around me in real life. That of course is what TripFiction is largely about. As I sat with the langur monkeys reading the book (me, not them), the author also describes these fierce little black-faced creatures in the text, which made reading the book such a multi dimensional experience: “There was a rushing in the trees that made her jump. A troop of langur monkeys were springing through the branches, their long limbs a silvery grey, faces black. One turned his eyes on her, bright and fierce, and she caught a hiss through teeth before he swung away.”

Ruth arrives in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand to look after her ailing father, James. Theirs has not been an easy relationship and it is many years since they last met. The story looks back over three generations, right back to the grandparents originally missionaries from the States. The family has built up substantial roots in this part of India, and invested emotional energy over many years caring for the well-being of the locals. Ruth’s experience has been that the love and care going out to the people around them has not really been reflected in family dynamics, and she for one has felt emotionally neglected. It is therefore with foreboding that she arrives in this all too familiar hill station, her feelings are very mixed. She settles into an existence in Mussoorie, reliving her past in the context of the present, and with an underlying sadness as she recognises: “I don’t think I love life. I just live it“. And as the narrative progresses we begin to understand why.

Iqbal is caring for her father – but who he is remains a mystery that gradually unfolds as the family history becomes clearer. In Ruth’s mind much time is spent recalling her school years – boarding school with its sense of abandonment; and her first love Manveer, a Sikh who also lived in the school, and who accepts her for herself only at great cost to himself.

The stories intertwine well and history is blended into the narrative to add to the overall understanding – what Partition meant for millions of people and how the conflict between religions flared up and caused so much strife between peoples. And it is a story about family, about rejection and loyalty and so much more.

This review first appeared on our blog, where we chat to Merryn Glover, the author, about India and writing: http://www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-...

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my blog The Literary Snob.

I have a weakness for books set in India. The India of my imagination has been cultivated by reading the richly detailed portraits put forth by authors such as Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Rudyard Kipling, and E.M. Forster. I love the way authors vividly describe India; the wafting intoxicating smell of masala chai, the pops of vibrant colors in the background, the lushness of the local verdure, and the wide spectrum of colors and smells to be found in spice markets. This book definitely delivered on the exotic and vibrant imagery that I love so much in books set in India. Glover paints a kaleidoscope of colors, smells, sounds, and images which is a delight to read.

The story itself is a little slow. At its core it’s a family drama, albeit a slow burning one. The two central characters are a father and daughter from a family of missionaries that have lived in India for three generations. A lot of themes are common family drama fare: misunderstandings derived from generational differences, guilt, rebellion, forgiveness, and personal growth. It’s standard fare.

However one thing this book tackles is the senseless violence that results from radicalization and religious differences. Through flashbacks the story visits the devastation and carnage in India’s history after Partition in 1947 as well as the violent turmoil 37 years later in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. Atrocities based on religious differences sprung up after these two events and it’s heartbreaking to read the senselessness of it all.

If India interests you in anyway I recommend this book. The imagery created by Glover is exquisite and the book has a lot to offer. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

[Amarta Dasgupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book starting from the Dying days of Raj era-encapsulating generations of American missionaries in India. The tumults of history right from Indian Independence and violence of partition to the riots which followed the death of Mrs. Indira Gandhi everything through the eyes of foreigners who gradually mingles with the Indian reality.

[Caroline Deacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, great depth of character, thoughtful, tender. Recommended.

[David Housholder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those of us who have lived in Mussoorie will be amazed at how vividly Merryn recreates the sights and sounds and scents of the hills using just words. She paints pictures with her words that take us back into this setting.
Those who haven't been in Mussoorie will be introduced to a delightful world. The book takes us incident by incident through three periods in the history of a family, interweaving the stories until we see the whole of the pattern.
My wife was leading a high school Activity Week program in New Delhi in 1984 and knows how accurately and vividly Merryn presents that week of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
You will hurt, maybe laugh, be amazed at the aptness of the descriptions she gives--at ponder at the significance of the story for our own lives.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes events and setting accessible for those who may not have prior experience or knowledge of them and deftly navigates internal and external clashes of religion. It is a reminder that national or community struggle is different from personal struggle, and that both can have lasting effects on individuals and relationships. This book, too, though without having to hammer the point home, is about forgiveness.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

i started this book over two months ago but got side tracked with other books. so I got a bit lost in the going back and forth in time in the book . I appreciated finding about the partition but I really was lost between the past and the present well written and very interesting history. bloody history. I enjoyed hearing about mussoorie d this is where Vern is from

[Mona Bomgaars · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must rate this 5 stars. From the first of the book as the author describes the wonderful ride from the plains of North India to the Musoorie bazaar and then further into the hills dotted with old missionary homes I was taken back into my memories. The interweaving of secular history and three generations of families was effective and continued to evoke memories of a rich and eventful past.

[Birdie Matern · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know the author and went to school with her. I tried to very objective when I read the book. I loved it! So descriptive - I felt like I was back in India- the colors, smells, noise all came back. And I learned a lot of history. A very, very interesting, engrossing story.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book... it has everything I love in a book: Characters you relate to and feel with (I cried buckets), plus a glimpse into history as if you're there, plus feeling transported to a new place.

[Barbara Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me right into a world I had never experienced - could practically smell the monsoon in the pages and loved the main character Ruth.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A House Called Askival tells the story of three generations of an American family living through turbulent times in India and is as colourful as its cover suggests. It is an epic story which covers almost 70 years of India's history in a very compelling and emotionally engaging novel.

Merryn Glover's novel transported me to India. So vividly does she write about the colours, the smells, the sights, the tastes that as I was reading I genuinely had a sense of being right there with Ruth and James. The real events described through the eyes of her fictional characters made those events truly come to life. The author does not shy away from honest depictions of the horrors and atrocities carried out by all sides in the bloodshed following Independence and also in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, experienced by a young Ruth. Yet it is clear that even in those troubled times, there was also great humanity shown by people of all religions, often to those considered enemies.

As well as covering the historical aspect of Indian life, A House Called Askival also examines the relationships within families, the expectations, perceived betrayals, the hurts and forgiveness. James and Ruth have a very complex relationship and it was poignant to read about them finally beginning to come to terms with their past differences and express their love for each other. The relationships between the Indians the family employed, worked with and were friends with were also convincingly portrayed, and again these relationships could be fraught and complicated.

A House Called Askival is a wonderfully involving, moving and enlightening novel. The sense of time and place is so well depicted and the characters are perfectly drawn. While I was reading, I felt as though I was living through the traumas and triumphs alongside the characters. It reads as a moving tribute to India with its struggle for peace and independence echoed in the characters' lives too.

[Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compelling novel that captures the atmosphere, the culture, the climate, the architecture of a hill station in North India during critical times in history. Within a couple pages the reader feels right there, following the story of 3 generations of an expat family in colonial times, through partition and the communal upheaval of the assassination of Indra Gandhi. The book unwraps the challenging and complex circumstances of young people caught between cultures, not by their own choice, but through the calling of their parents to work in mission hospitals in India. An noble and altruistic calling, that left their children isolated, troubled and overlooked in spartan boarding schools.

I working in mission hospitals in India in the 1970s and am familiar with the Hill stations of South India. To me this was a very searching, sad and emotive novel exposing the high and lifelong price paid by the children of missionaries and other expatriate parents involved in humanitarian causes. I know a few Ruths.

The other themes explored in the book are the rapidity with which apparently harmonious communities can disintegrate into communal violence following political acts, and the tolerance and kindness expressed by communities and individuals at times of upheaval. A compelling drama to read but one which will have a deep impact on the readers.

I highly recommend this novel, you really need to read this book.

[Andrew Tupper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book contains so much in a normal length novel, is so beautifully written, so poignant, wrenching, flavour-infused, and ultimately redemptive, that it is difficult to believe that it's a debut novel. Merryn Glover brings us vividly into northern India, into the noise, the sights, the smells, the tastes (oh, those food descriptions!), and most particularly into an astonishing complexity of cultures. At the heart of this book is a tremendously strong set of personal narratives spanning two generations - of Ruth, her father James, and her absent mother, of James' parents, and of the other lives intertwined with them. Religion, violence, pain and loss are never far away, and we learn a lot of the history of India (or at least, I did), but ultimately this is a book about love, grace and reconciliation in circumstances of great lifelong hurt. I'm sure there are flaws somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Keep the tissues handy, even if you think that your heart is made of stone.

[Terry Grigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought a copy of this book from Merryn at a book signing in Inverness and was fascinated to hear about her life growing up in the Indian sub-continent. I have travelled to India several times and am always interested in getting different perspectives from other people, as I am a writer myself. She has certainly used her experiences in crafting an absorbing and illuminating novel on personal struggles from the time of Partition to the death of Indira Gandhi and beyond. Right from the beginning, she sets the scene with her vivid description of the hill-town of Mussoorie and one feels they are actually there. Her characters are very plausible and she makes some acute observations, particularly regarding the sequences involving the mass killings on the train migrations. She highlights all the religious and cultural tensions in a very credible and erudite way in set conversational pieces. And I like the way the novel ends with Ruth arriving at the ruins of Askival, showing the impermanence of life. As Merryn quotes from Ecclesiastes ‘Everything is meaningless!’

[Olga Wojtas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, poignant, enthralling book. It focuses on three generations of an American missionary family against the sweep of India’s history from partition onwards. The key focus is James and his daughter Ruth whose relationship is fraught. We see James as both a child and an adult, and Ruth as a boarding school “mish kid” far away from her family, giving us far more empathy for and understanding of both characters than they can have for one another. They each have a shocking tragedy in their lives, and Glover is masterly in the way she reveals these. There is hurt, there is misunderstanding, there is racism, there is violence, but above all, this book movingly demonstrates the redemptive power of faith and love. I discovered that at the very end there’s a glossary of words from Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, etc, but I had no problems with these words while reading: I was able to work things out from context, and foreign words were used deftly and sparingly to enhance the narrative.

[Jon Game · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic read. This is a story of regretted actions and the search for redemption. Jumping back and forth in time, the story is of the relationship between father and daughter and their parallel lives. School days, love, death, spirituality all play their part. Set in India, the horrors of religious fervour and violence are always in the background and rise to the surface in brutal ways on occasions. The book builds slowly and reveals details of hidden pasts in a way that lets the reader piece connections together in a gradual revealing.

The best thing about the book was simply the way it was written. Each sentence seemed to have had sufficient care in its choice of words without becoming "too clever". This is the first book since I read The Overstory by Richard Powers that I have felt this joy in reading a novel.

[Shanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because my mother told me I should. It grows slowly more compelling, mostly because you want to shake the characters until they tell the truth to each other. I do struggle with communication based plots. Anyway, the shifts in time are a little contrived but mostly okay. I liked both characters, though the ending felt a bit contrived and HELLO SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION HAVE YOU HEARD OF DRUG TESTING (they have by now), and it some places it wasn't quite coherent. But overeall the setting and the lovely writing and the strength of the emotions worked well for me, and I'm glad I read it for the setting alone.

[Franziska · Rating 5 out of 5]

a story taking place far away from where I live, but somehow not unfamiliar in its core. talking about spiritual and physical needs, about individual journeys, family and cultural tradition, and global history. all combined into a rich tapestry, of colours and even scents (well, by describing indian food you'll have me anyway), and with a comforting thread of warmth woven all the way through it. some things are of a brutal topicality today; I also found parallels to other places' history, e.g. st kilda: when missionaries arrive, having a crucial impact on a community's life... and I really like the style, direct and personal, but never voyeuristic. a wonderful book!

[Will Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found "A House Called Askival" enthralling: the weave of family struggle and sibling rivalry, missionary zeal and interfaith dialogue, school dynamics, the scents of the hills, the sounds of the bazaars, the tastes of the cooking, different strands of turbulent 20th Century India. (Intriguing to read it alongside "Midnight's Children" and Jan Morris' recent and wry"The British Empire: An Equivocation" on BBC Radio 4.) Subtly woven, pageturning, a personal struggle with an epic canvas, it somehow feels true to India...and the author herself.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that will stay with the reader for a long time. This is such a beautiful book; the writing and descriptions; the emotions and personal histories of the characters; the tragedy that they and their home of India experience across the decades that are presented to the reader. This book had me gripped from start to finish; Glover is a personal favourite of mine and I've read both her recent books and was captivated by each one. I absolutely love her writing.

[Jane MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book, to be savoured rather than rushed through. A a debut novel it is of astonishing quality, with descriptions which transport you to India, and a story which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I loved this book, and felt enriched when I had finished it.

[Kapil Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an exploration of a changing post-independence India, with a focus on the specific subjectivity of the Christian missionary. Set in Mussoorie, the novel blends fiction with elements of the author's experienced life at Woodstock School. This is a compelling exploration of cultural cross-currents, very worth the read.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Glover's first novel and I enjoyed it even more than her latest (Of Stone and Sky).
Ruth returns to Mussoorie in the hills when her father James is dying, after many years of estrangement. A tale of missionary families and children amongst India's turbulent history. I assume much was inspired by the author's own childhood, I must say boarding school would be the pits!

[Tim Stafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably mostly of interest to people w some heritage in Indian missionaries who went boarding school in the Himalayas—as my mother did. Glover is good at description but not naturally gifted at making her characters live. The climax of forgiveness and redemption is good, though.