Ruth Prawer Jhabala: Heat and Dust

Most people probably associate the name of Ruth Prawer Jhabala (1927-2013) with her work as screenwriter for the producer / director film team Ismael Merchant and James Ivory. Successful work: Her adaptations of the E. M. Forster novels «A Room with a View» and «Howards End» won Academy Awards. Her true passion however were her own works of fiction, all the more remarkable since English was not her first language. Born in Cologne, Germany, to Polish Jewish parents, the family fled the Nazi regime, emigrating to Britain. She later followed her Indian Parsee husband to India, where she never really settled in, but began to write novels and screenplays. Her novel «Heat and Dust» (1975) intertwines the stories of two Englishwomen, set in the 1920s and the 1970s respectively. The narrator, Anne, wants to find out more about the fate of her great-aunt, who began an unlikely friendship with a local ruler, crossing cultural boundaries and causing a scandal. The novel won the Booker Prize, and Prawer Jhabala, disillusioned by India, «blown about from country to country», moved to New York. We shall also watch the film based on the novel - screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabala! Level C1 required.