Heat and Dust

Heat and Dust (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala which won the Booker Prize in 1975.

The events of the story take place in India, during the periods of the British Raj in the 1920s and the present day of the novel (the 1970s). A young English woman searches for the truth about her great aunt Olivia (1920s).

The narrator discovers that Olivia was a woman smothered by the social restrictions placed upon her by British society. She falls in love with a Nawab and becomes pregnant with his child. Her decision to abort the baby results in a scandal. In discovering the truth about these events, the narrator also comes to fall in love with an Indian man, understand herself better and develops an interest in India.