Paul Scott is most famous for his much-beloved tetralogy The Raj
Quartet, an epic that chronicles the end of the British rule in India
with a cast of vividly and memorably drawn characters. Inspired by
Scott's own time spent in India during World War II, this powerful novel
provides valuable insight into how foreign lands changed the British who
worked and fought in them, hated and loved them. A coming of age tale,
The Birds of Paradise is the story of a boy and his childhood
friendship with the daughter of a British diplomat and the son of the
Raja. Scott artfully brings his young narrator's voice to life with
evocative language and an eye for detail, capturing the pangs of
childhood and the bittersweet fog of memory with nostalgic yet immediate
prose