The Moon in the Mango Tree

Book excerpt: From Pamela Binnings Ewen, bestselling author of The Queen of Paris and Émilienne, The Moon in the Mango Tree is a lush historical novel set in the 1920s. It is a dazzling decade, and Barbara Bond is a beautiful young singer torn between her fierce desire for independence and her deep, abiding love for her husband, a brilliant doctor. She has trained for years to sing grand opera, but soon after her marriage to Harvey Perkins, she learns that he has accepted an assignment as a medical missionary in the country of Siam. Suddenly Barbara is forced into the duty of a “good wife"—to support her husband’s career, not her own. As resentment slowly grows, she travels with Harvey first to the jungles of Siam, then to the capital city of Bangkok, where he is now physician to the royal court. As she struggles with the secrets straining their marriage, Barbara wonders if she has made the right choice. At last, leaving her husband in Bangkok, she flees to Paris, then Rome, where she can finally sing on stage. If Harvey loves her, the risk is worth it for a chance to have it all—her husband and her career. Why should she be forced to choose? And, if she chooses, must the other be lost forever?