Claire Scobie – The Pagoda Tree
Tom Keneally Centre Reading
Meet award-winning journalist and writer Claire Scobie in the Tom Keneally Centre, talking about her novel The Pagoda Tree, India and her inspirations.
The Pagoda Tree is a sumptuous and sensual novel that traces the story of Maya, a temple dancer coming of age in 18th century India, a time of great upheaval. Destined to become the courtesan of a Prince, Maya’s life is turned upside down when she falls in love with a young Englishman at great cost to them both.
About The Pagoda Tree
Maya dances like not other. She becomes the dance . . . Her dance can steal a man’s soul.
Tanjore, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples of this ancient city in the heart of southern India. Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a devadasi, a dancer for the temple. She is instructed in dance, the mystical arts and lovemaking. It is expected she will be chosen as a courtesan for the prince himself.
But as Maya comes of age, India is on the cusp of change. She is forced to flee to the bustling port city of Madras, where East and West collide. Thomas Pearce, an ambitious young Englishman there to make his fortune, is entranced from the moment he first sees her dance. But their love is forbidden, and comes at enormous cost.
Weaving together the uneasy meeting of two cultures, The Pagoda Tree is a captivating story of love, loss and fate.
Guest Speaker
Claire Scobie is an award-winning journalist who has lived and worked in the UK, India and now Sydney, where she writes for the Telegraph, the Observer, and theSydney Morning Herald, among others. In 1997 she won the Catherine Pakenham Award as Best Woman Journalist of the year. Her first book, Last Seen in Lhasa, is a memoir based on her friendship with a Tibetan nun, and won the Dolman Best Travel Book Award in 2007. The Pagoda Tree is her second book.
FREE – Bookings are essential.
BOOK on 02 9262 7300 OR tkc@smsa.org.au
http://smsa.org.au/events/event/claire-scobie-the-pagoda-tree/
When
26th November 2014 12:30 pmTo 26th November 2014 01:30 pm
Where
Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts280 Pitt St
Sydney CBD 2000
