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Two Under the Indian Sun Hardcover

by Jon Godden (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 44 ratings
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In November 1914 two small sisters, Jon and Rumer Godden, returned to India. They had spent a year in London being "brought up" by austere aunts, but now the zeppelins were expected, and so they were summoned back to their home in East Bengal. Jon was only seven and a half and Rumer six."Two Under the Indian Sun", a unique collaboration, is a remembrance of the five years that followed, in the village of Narayangunj--where their father worked as a steamship agent--on a bustling river that feeds the great Brahmaputra. It is an evocation of a few years that will always be timeless for these two, and it is as true an account as memory can accomplish. India, for them, was sun-baked dust between their toes, colored robes in the market place, the chanting of coolies, the deep hoot of steamers on the river, and the smells of thorn trees, mustard, and coconut smells redolent of the sun.India was also people, people of every kind, each different from the other and bringing a trail of other differences, of place, custom, religion, even of skin. It was not an ordinary life for young girls, and later they agreed that it might have been better had they been raised in the simplicity of their Quaker forbears. "Better," Jon was to say, "but not nearly as interesting."Above all, those five years were "a time when everything was each thing was joy was joy, hope was hope, fear and sorrow were fear and sorrow." Jon and Rumer have written of that time with a single voice, perhaps because during those years the two sisters grew so close that "between them was a passing of thought, of feeling, of knowing without any need for words."[From the front inside jacket.]
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00126EPZW
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
44 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Memories of Old India
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2020
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I read this again after many years and was still impressed. Rumer and Jon describe their feelings and childhood so well. The descriptions of their Bengal home and joys and sorrows are wonderful. Its hard to imagine them leaving their parents a t such a young age and going to a strange country, England. Fortunately they returned to India after a few years.
This takes place in the 1920's.
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Susanne K
5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of my favorite books, a true story of two young sister ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2016
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This is one of my favorite books, a true story of two young sister living in India of British parents. It gives a wonderful description of daily life in the years around the first world war, seen through children's eyes.It's a great read and would highly recommend it.
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Lily C.
5.0 out of 5 stars I love it!
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2013
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I am nearing the end of this fascinating book by Jon and Rumer Godden about their childhood years in India. It was listed as like new and looks brand new, arriving in perfect condition. The seller even included a thank you note! I would highly recommend this book.
3 people found this helpful
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Vijaya Bodach
5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2023
What a delight! Jon and Rumer capture the essence of an idyllic childhood in India, full of joy and wonder, even if there are a thousands dangers from cobras to rabid dogs. The book begins with the girls (aged 6 and 7 yrs) in care of spinster aunts in England and there's such a contrast with the strict upbringing there and the freedom they experience when they join their parents, two younger sisters, and a house full of servants in East Bengal (now Pakistan) at the start of WWI. They write with great sensitivity and love for the Indian people and I loved that the book doesn't impose adult sensibilities upon their child-selves. They evoked so many of my own childhood memories, from making up games to reciting poetry to adults. Their voices blend beautifully--they were so close and yet at the very end, I could feel that abrupt end of childhood and their return to England five years later. But India was their home--both Jon and Rumer returned as adults to live and write there. If you wish to make a visit to India, read this book.
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Margaret P. Dexter
5.0 out of 5 stars Autobiography not to be missed
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014
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Simply Outstanding! Marvelous to read about an era that is no more and of a British family... their daily life living in India in the early 1900's. ..
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Lori
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013
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I am a huge fan of Rumer Godden, and this memoir of living in India as a child is beautifully told.
2 people found this helpful
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True Power
5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Good Book Should Be - A Travel in Time and Place
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2011
This is a wonderful book, a "keeper". A true pleasure to read, suitable for any age and gender, the reader is embraced as a member of the Godden family, traveling with them by foot or on horseback, by cart or carriage, on rowboats, steamships, and by sail to and through India (including what is now Pakistan)in the early years of the twentieth century. The authors, two pre-teen sisters, join other members of their family as they live, love, learn, celebrate, suffer and mature among the cultures of this part of the British Empire nearly a hundred years ago, where their father is resident agent of one of the great trading companies of the era. The reader becomes an eager, wide-eyed learner and active participant, an adventurer in the many facets of the differing cultures, religions, castes, customs, emotions, dietary practices, disciplines and justice, how they interact (or do not) with each other and with the British masters. The reader is led not to judge, but to learn, and departs eager to learn more of how these regions, cultures, religions, and castes evolved into what they are today, wanting to know more, to meet again if possible and reminisce with Jon and Rumer, as at a family reunion. Two Under the Indian Sun is what a book should be.
9 people found this helpful
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Gail Napell
5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful introduction to India
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2010
In the late 1960s my family visited India for 6 weeks. I was 11 years old and it was my first trip to a country where poverty was (then) so widely visible. One of my mother's friends had been to India many times and she gave me this book to read as a preparation for the trip. It was a stroke of brilliance.

Jon and Rumer Godden spent most of their childhood in Narayangunj, in what is now Pakistan, where their English father was a steamer agent in the early 1900s. "Two Under the Indian Sun" is an honest memoir of expatriate life in early 20th century India. It doesn't pretend to be comprehensive, but it's amazing what children see and understand, and how the perspective of childhood can compensate for the perspective of privilege. The Goddens sisters love India passionately, and it shows in this book. They don't hesitate to talk about poverty, cruelty, death, corruption - but also the beauty, compassion, and resilience of the place they thought of as home, even long after they returned to England. Seeing India through their eyes enabled me to love it too.
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NorahT
5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding tale of childhood.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2021
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As a lover of Rumer Godden’s novels, it was fascinating to learn about her childhood. The atmosphere of India which permeates her novels was obviously soaked up during her early years.
This joint autobiography bu Rumer and her elder sister Jon, is seamlessly written. Many of RG’s novels and stories for younger readers reflect the two sisters’ close but at times, stormy bond.
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ShopRite
5.0 out of 5 stars Steeped in nostalgia
Reviewed in India on December 1, 2016
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A gentle evocation of sunny childhood, an enchanting bygone era......India in all her myriad moods, colours, sounds & smells. Brightly lit up festivals, colorful gardens & vegetation, holi revelry, the lazy unhurried pace of the vast expanse of the river, the excitement of a cross country journey up into the majestic hills vividly remembered as childhood memories are. Honest & captivating!
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B. Zaman
5.0 out of 5 stars Kindheit in Indien
Reviewed in Germany on August 9, 2009
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Rumer Godden verbrachte nicht nur ihre Kindheit in Indien, sondern kam auch als Erwachsene wieder nach Indien zurück. In diesem kleinen Buch schildert sie ihre Kindheit mit zwei Schwestern, beschreibt das Leben einer englischen Beamtenfamilie bis ins Kleinste. Sie beschreibt das Verhältnis zu den verschiedenen "servants" vom Gärtner bis zur Aya. Sie beschreibt aber auch ihr Verhältnis zur englischen Gesellschaft. Das ist sehr lesenswert und informativ. Leider gibt es keine deutsche Übersetzung dieses Buches.
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Arjun
5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone interested in the Raj this memoir of a ...
Reviewed in India on September 30, 2017
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For anyone interested in the Raj this memoir of a childhood spent in India by the Godden sisters is both very informative and extremely satisfying. Keenly observed and insightful, it is in equal parts naively charming and at times deeply moving. This is the Raj as experienced by two teenage girls living in an alien land they sincerely considered their own.
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Four Violets
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully evocative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2017
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After having read  A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep  I just had to read this to find out about Rumer and Jon Godden's earlier adventures in India when they were children and sent to Narayangunj (now in Bangladesh) in 1914. There were two younger sisters as well as Mam and Fa and Fa's sister, as well as an entire cast of servants, and, as the girls grow up, young men. There are photographs, but never enough, I would have loved to see more of their holidays in Kashmir, the houseboat, and more of the servants. India is shown to us in all its contrasts, beauty and ugliness, serenity and horrible dangers. Absolutely evocative of the time, very honest and often funny.
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