The Lake Pavilion

By: Ann Bennett

Narrated by: Rebecca Sharp

Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From Ann Bennett, best-selling author of The Orphan House, comes The Lake Pavilion, a sweeping historical novel; the story of two women connected by devastating secrets from wartime England and British India of the 1930s.

Perfect for fans of Dinah Jeffries, Victoria Hislop, and The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas.

India, 1935: Amelia Collins, a missionary’s daughter left destitute by the death of her parents, leaves their home in the Himalayan foothills to find work in Darjeeling. There she meets District Officer Reginald Holden, a powerful older man who spirits her away from poverty and prejudice to start a new life as his wife in Ganpur. Amelia soon forms a bond with Reginald’s young son, Arthur, and resumes missionary work in the villages around Ganpur. There, she discovers a pavilion on a lake where the wives of maharajahs once bathed, now abandoned and cloaked in mystery.

When the Indian independence movement flares in Ganpur and Reginald struggles to contain it, Amelia's world begins to fall apart as she uncovers the shattering truths he has been keeping from her.

Decades later, when Kate Hamilton inherits a rambling country house from her great-aunt Amelia, she returns to the village in Buckinghamshire that she left as a teenager in 1944. Sorting through long-hidden papers, she begins to unearth Amelia’s secrets from her years in British India.

But Kate is harboring a secret of her own - a devastating betrayal from that last summer of the war. She has lived in the shadow of that day ever since, but Kate is convinced that unlocking the truth about Amelia’s Indian past will hold the key to her own future...

©2021 Ann Bennett (P)2021 Ann Bennett

A picture of India.

I enjoy Ann Bennetts book so much. They take me to far off lands. The endings are always a little melancholy even though they are both happy and sad endings. I like her storytelling always very descriptive of the areas which makes it interesting and like you are there. This book help you to understand the prejudice of that Eurasian people. I hope Amelia had happiness in her life. I think she did in the end.

Great narration great story:

Definitely a worth while listen with interesting characters and plenty of suspense. We’ll written about the lifestyle of the British Raj and the uprising against the British. A very sad and tumultuous time in history. Anglo Indians suffered prejudices and rejections from both the English and Indians.
I really enjoyed the book. On to number two.











Raj.

Great narration; story is OK

This was a good historical fiction novel with enough suspense to keep it interesting. The scenery and historical details were well done. I felt that I needed more background information on one of the protagonists, Kate, but other than that I enjoyed the story.

Worth the read

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Very exciting in parts but overall the story is riveting.