THE IVORY SWING.

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982. 252 pp, 8vo (8 5/8" H). Winner of the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award. "(A)n evocative story of a Canadian couple caught in personal and cultural conflict in the lush and volatile climate of contemporary South India. Seeking to escape the stultifying atmosphere of a small university town in Ontario, Juliet accompanies her husband David on a research sabbatical to southern India. There, the relentless swelter of life near the equator seizes them in a timeless drift; they become part of the life process. And, divested of familiar defences, they are vulnerable and raw. Their past experiences become reorchestrated in memory, and their life together is called into question. Their confrontation with an alien and tradition-bound culture becomes critical when they befriend Yashoda, a beautiful young widow whose life is made intolerable by the austerity of family law. Yashoda's seductive helplessness engages David and Juliet in separate but compelling ways, and their involvement in her plight draws them into a situation of terrifying consequence. Janette Turner Hospital is a superb stylist with unusual insight and a skill for sensuous description. Based on first-hand knowledge, her portrait of India is exotic and often disturbing. She has written a novel full of passion, atmosphere, and the drama of human interaction." Light edgewear, area of light damp staining on front board. Dust jacket has light edgewear/wrinkli g - mainly at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, area of faint damp staining on inside front panel/flap-fold.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good-/Very Good-.