A woman's ghost comes calling for her devoted husband; an amulet hastily given to a British officer saves him from a man-eating tiger; a happily married young woman finds herself reminiscing about someone lost for ever; an ayah sings lullabies to her imaginary charge; and an obnoxious self-made man loses his family in a flash.

Written and set in late-nineteenth-century India, the stories in East of Suez-domestic dramas, shikar stories, hauntings and grand love affairs-chronicle the lives and after-lives of the sahibs and memsahibs of the Raj. Sharply observed and timeless in its evocation of an age long past, East of Suez is a memorable and gripping read.