A review by twstdtink
The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite the fact that it made me deeply uncomfortable for all 413 pages of it. Set in (British) Ceylon, current Sri Lanka, in the 1920's/30's, the novel covers many fascinating aspects of that era: plantation life, segregation, sexism, prohibition, the far flung effects of the Wall Street Crash. Although these topics are not new by any means, this book is unique because it takes place in such a lush and exotic country. Jefferies does a good job of keeping these topics in the background, and not overwhelming the reader, by navigating the story through the eyes of Gwen Hooper, new wife to the widowed Laurence, owner of a vast Ceylon tea empire. Gwen is just 19 at the start of the book. Her naivety keeps readers from discovering things that will later prove to be important. Which is what gives the story it's unsettling feeling. As the reader, you know that horrible things are afoot. But, the characters in the book keep behaving as if things are normal or ignoring warning signs, and the effect is that you always feel like something bad is about to happen.