Book of the Week #29

Jana Bibi's Excellent Fortunes: A Novel by Betsy Woodman (NY: Henry Holt & Co., 2012)

"Janet Laird’s life changes when she inherits her grandfather’s house in an Indian hill station. Ignoring her son’s pleas to come grow old in Scotland, she moves with her chatty parrot, Mr. Ganguly, and her loyal housekeeper, Mary, to Hamara Nagar, where the local merchants are philosophers, the police chief is a tyrant, and a bagpipe-playing Gurkha keeps the wild monkeys at bay.
Settling in, Jana (as she prefers to be called) meets her colorful local neighbors– Feroze Ali Khan of Royal Tailors, who struggles with his business and family, V.K. Ramachandran, whose Treasure Emporium is bursting at the seams with objects of unknown provenance, and Rambir, editor of the local newspaper, who burns the midnight oil at his printing press.
When word gets out that the town is in danger of being drowned by a government dam, Jana is enlisted to help put it on the map. Hoping to attract tourists with promises of good things to come, she stacks her deck of cards, readies her fine-feathered assistant—and Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes is born!" --publisher's blurb

This is the debut novel by NH resident Betsy Woodman. She will be doing readings in the next few weeks at Waterstreet Books (7/24/12) and Gibsons (8/2/12).