Other New Publications

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23073, 25 June 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

Other New Publications

MODERN INDIA * PATHAN OFFICER'S PROBLEMS The mental and emotional problems of a young Pathan commissioned officer in tho Indian Army, the changing relations between England and India, and a penetrating description of the Eastern character, combine to make Maud Diver's new novel, "The Dream Prevails," one of exceptional ability and interest. Sir Hoy Sinclair, son of an English baronet and husband of a remarkable Rajput woman) is already known to readers of a previous novel of Mrs. Diver's, "The Singer Passes, ' and his reappearance in the new book will be welcomed, for his vital and arresting personality make him an outstanding character. The young Pathan officer is educated in England anil is a subaltern in a Frontier regiment, but belongs neither to the Anglo-Indian world in which lie must live, nor to his own wild mountain country. He falls in love with a charming Scottish girl, and his dramatic love storv is closely linked with the lives of Sir Roy Sinclair, John Sync , Captain Desmond and his wife Eve, all of whom have appeared in earlier books by the writer. . This is a finely-wrought and absorbing novel, written by a woman who knows thoroughly not only tho country of India, but also tho characters of its people. _ , " The Dream Prevails," by Maud Diver. (John Murray.)

By THE BOOKMEN

ENTERTAINING PEOPLE TWENTY YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP Not many authors take the liberty of experimenting with time by commencing a story in the present day and then harking back a long period of years. Mr. Martin Boyd, however, in his novel, "Night of the Party," achieves this feat with delightful results. The story opens in the present time when a group of lively and modern diameters are introduced. Notable among them are the witty and sophisticated Lueinda, ■ the self-righteous and eminently respectable Ella, and the latter's artist husband, Gavin. After revealing, chiefly by means-of light and witty conversation, the complex natures of the three people and their relations to each other, Mr..Boyd then goes back 20 years, and by this glance into the past shows how the threads of the three lives were in the first place joined together. The present time is revealed again for the conclusion of, the story, in which the climax, which could so easily have been pure melodrama, is saved from this by the author's own keen sense of humour. "Night it tho Party," by Martin Boyd. (Dent.)