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    The Dhow House
    The Dhow House
    The Dhow House
    Ebook371 pages5 hours

    The Dhow House

    By Jean McNeil

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    ‘Compulsively readable novel… well-written scenes worthy of John le Carré… McNeil’s writing is most luminous, both spare and powerful’ The New York Times

    'Completely absorbing, eminently readable... You won't read many better novels this year.' --The Daily Mail

    'This exotic novel handles large themes with assurance, tact and knowledge.' --Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland

    When Rebecca Laurelson, an English doctor, is forced to leave her post in an East African field hospital, she arrives at her aunt's house on the Indian Ocean and is taken into the heart of a family she has never met before. Amongst the all-night beach parties and cocktail receptions, her attraction for her much younger cousin grows.

    But the gilded lives of her aunt Julia's family and their fellow white Africans on the coast are under threat - Islamist terror attacks are on the rise and Rebecca knows more about this violence than she is prepared to divulge. Will she be able to save her new-found family from the violence that encroaches on their seductive lives? Or, amidst growing unrest, will the true reason for her hasty exit from her posting, be unmasked?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLegend Press
    Release dateSep 15, 2016
    ISBN9781785079450
    Author

    Jean McNeil

    Jean McNeil is a prolific fiction and non- fiction author whose work has been nominated for and won several major international awards. She is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel with Legend Press, and 12th overall publication was The Dhow House (2016). Follow Jean on Twitter at @ jeanmcneilwrite

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    Reviews for The Dhow House

    3.5/5

    10 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Working as a surgeon in east Africa has left Rebecca at low ebb. You would think a nice quiet vacation with her mother’s sister and her family would be just what Rebecca needs to rejuvenate and relax. Memories of her trauma work and the political environment leaves her on edge. A romantic interest in her cousin seems out of place and detracts from dealing with the ugliness terrorism brings. The descriptions of the flora, fauna, and wildlife provided a richness that was lacking in the characters. The book needs editing to deal with an overabundance of dashes.I received this book through a random giveaway. Although encouraged as a courtesy to provide feedback, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
    • 4/5
      I found the exotic location and the coverage of contemporary issues in this novel compelling, but always seemed to be struggling to stay afloat, plot-wise. Having reached the end I'm still not clear exactly what happened and who (if anyone) was double-crossing who. The writing is cerebral and finely chiselled, but perhaps one for bigger brains than mine.
    • 4/5
      In Jean McNeil’s suspenseful novel, The Dhow House, Rebecca Laurelson is a doctor on temporary leave after an attack on the NGO field hospital where she’s been treating the wounded. The hospital is in an isolated region of East-Africa where Islamic extremism is spreading and surrounding towns and villages are coming under threat. After leaving her post, she travels south to Kilindoni, on the Indian Ocean, a luxurious resort town where prosperous white Africans flaunt their wealth and carry on as if the dangers that threaten their way of life don’t exist. Rebecca’s Aunt Julia and Uncle Bill, eminent members of this set, live in the Dhow House, a roomy, well-appointed, well-guarded seaside retreat, lushly landscaped and situated behind gates. Rebecca was raised in England by her mother, Julia’s sister, and recalls seeing her aunt on only a single occasion when she was very young (as the novel begins she’s in her late thirties). She also remembers that her mother’s family disapproved of Julia’s life choices. But even though Rebecca is a virtual stranger to her aunt and uncle and their two adult children, Lucy and the enigmatic Storm, they welcome her into their home and treat her as if they’ve known her all her life. Rebecca, however, traumatized by her recent brush with death and in a vulnerable state, is holding back. She can’t tell anyone what is really going on, a situation that only adds to her feelings of isolation and loneliness. Putting on a brave face, she fits in as well as she can and drifts through her weeks in Kilindoni, observing events and interactions that take place around her, attending parties and leisurely lunches, going to the beach, drinking wine, and getting acquainted with her extended family. Still, she can’t escape what she knows and can never truly relax. To make her situation even more precarious, she finds herself unable to resist an overwhelming physical attraction that shames her and that she knows is a betrayal. As the extremists move south and the violence creeps closer to the country’s urban centres, and the dangers that Rebecca knew all along were closing in on all of them finally take a lethal toll, her betrayal is discovered and she is forced to accept that there is no remedy for what she has done. Jean McNeil is a disciplined and patient writer. This is a novel that gains its considerable power from the author’s expert withholding and her subtle deployment of numerous moral ambiguities. In McNeil’s novels families are never simple and emotions are often as destructive as any roadside IED, and this is especially true of The Dhow House. Our fascination with Rebecca is driven in part by her damaged state of mind and the burden of emotional baggage she carries with her, which render her suspicious and unreliable. We often question what she does, but even her most brazenly self-destructive actions are dramatically appropriate and convincing. To be sure, The Dhow House is a novel that challenges the reader. Its structure is not linear. The story unfolds slowly. McNeil relies on flashbacks to fill in the blanks in Rebecca’s recent past. But the book is written with a sensual appreciation for the power of language to move the heart and stimulate the intellect. The frequent descriptions of the natural world dazzle with the precision of first-hand observation (the author is also an accomplished travel writer and memoirist). Jean McNeil’s is a mature talent, and The Dhow House is fully engaging at every level. It takes us into a world filled with menace and populated by people whose motives are often hazy, but it is a novel that we inhabit and from which we emerge with reluctance.
    • 5/5
      Rebecca Laurelson leaves his photographic career to become a doctor in a bush hospital near the coast of Africa. All who need medical attention are admitted, rebels and local people alike. Rebecca is need of a respite from the daily trauma and decides to visit her aunt farther down the coast. She has had little contact with her and tries to integrate with the family. White settler hegemony is disintegrating and there is conflict and danger everywhere. Rebecca tries to fit in and attempts some personal liaison but even in close encounters she sees only bone and sinew with occasional bursts of pent up sexual energy. In the end she must leave Africa. Throughout the narrative, the author zeroes in on Rebecca’s introspection but provide us with a rich description of the surroundings, bird life and local customs. One is charmed by her literary prose and steadfastness in portraying her lead character’s state of mind. A good read…I was provided with an electronic copy in return for an honest review

    Book preview

    The Dhow House - Jean McNeil

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