The Speech of Angels [Import] [Paperback]

Sharon Maas (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000716999X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007169993
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,609,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sharon Maas was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1951.

She was educated in Guyana and England. After leaving school she worked as a trainee reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown, Guyana. She later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist.

She spent 1971 and 1972 travelling around Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Her travel articles were published in the Chronicle newspaper. In 1973 she travelled overland to India via England, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. After two years in India she moved to Germany. She now divides her time between England and Germany with her husband and two children.

Her latest book is Sons of Gods -- the Mahabharata Retold, a new version of the magnificent Indian epic, written under the pen name Aruna Sharan. She worked on it for almost 40 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling heights and plunging depths, January 29, 2006

By 

Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Speech of Angels (Paperback)

This is a story of the dazzling heights and plunging depths of human emotion.

From the colorful, chaotic slums of Bombay's streets, to the monochromatic, efficient orderliness of Germany, from the untamed beauty of an English garden to the wildly remote Himalayas and fashion capitals of the world, Sharon Maas weaves an intriguing tale, which will hold you spellbound until the very last word.

Each character comes vividly to life with that special vibrancy found only when the author has a special relationship with the subject matter, perhaps from personal experience, and certainly from careful research and character development.

Plucked from the squalor of street life in Bombay, Jyothi faces a new life in an unfamiliar place, in which she can relate to nothing except the calming influence of music. Using her natural gift for classical music as a shield, she must overcome the tragedy of her past, and somehow fit into her new life, which often seems to swallow her entirely, her own shortcomings restricting her like iron bands.

Encouraged by her new mother, she experiences her first rush of power as she begins performing violin solos in public, and a new Jyothi begins to emerge, not entirely to her own liking.

Tragic circumstances lead to another upheaval in her life, and she is again forced to start again, in another unfamiliar place, with her only constants being her adopted father and her violin. Here however, she finds a new person to play for, and she experiences for the first time, unrequited love.

A visit to India brings back old memories, and a chance meeting rekindles a fire within her, which unfortunately is extinguished when the trip has to be cut short.

As time goes by, Jyothi becomes a famous violinist, performing around the world, and changes her name to Jade, developing a separate persona as a sophisticated professional woman who knows how to deal with whatever Fate throws her way. And boy, does Fate ever throw curveballs!

Swinging wildly between elation and depression, she retraces her roots and discovers what she had unknowingly been looking for her entire life.

This is a simple, but colorful story that approaches epic proportions on emotion, by the talented author of "Of Marriageable Age" and "Peacocks Dancing".

Amanda Richards