Sing to Me, Dreamer by Shonagh Koea

I bought this book at Ariel Books in Auckland and read it about a month ago, after months of struggling through Moby-Dick.

The book is a blend of vivid happy colours with thick streaks of grey. Margaret, the main character, started her life in New Zealand. After series of events that left little room for happiness, she grabs an offer to change her life and goes to live in India as the lover of a Maharajah. She powers through a devastating storm to get hold of this chance and is rewarded with years of joy and peace. Changes in India and back home force her to face the house where she grew up and a past left behind in a mountain of memories and boxes. She becomes part of a world that looks at her as eccentric, at best. As she cleans her parents’ house in the company of a beautiful elephant she finds a way to understand the past and embrace the future.

The process which takes Margaret from sorting a house and her past with it, soothed me and created an emotional bond to this book. It is probably in the light of changes in my personal life where a great source of love, my grandmother, has left the physical world as I know it. While the love of family and friends is a warm blanket around me, it is good to have books to inspire comfort too.