Winner of the 2020 BookBrunch Selfies Award for Adult Fiction“Following the death of my wife, I am in need of support and companionship. I am prepared to make you an offer of marriage.”
Evie Fraser, paid companion to a crotchety spinster, seems destined for a lonely life. Then out of the blue, a marriage proposal arrives by post. She met the handsome Douglas Barrington just once – at his wedding … Douglas Barrington just once – at his wedding – but never forgot him. Now widowed, plantation-owner Douglas offers her a new life on the lush, exotic island of Penang. How can Evie resist?
But what are Barrington’s motives in marrying Evie when he barely knows her, and why is he so hostile and moody?
Evie soon finds herself pitched against Douglas on the one hand and the shallow, often spiteful world of the expatriate British on the other. Has she made the biggest mistake of her life?
Flynn’s tenth novel explores love, marriage, the impact of war and the challenges of displacement – this time in a tropical paradise as the threat of the Japanese empire looms closer.
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I may write a more informative review sometime, but for now – this book really is outstanding. Highly recommended.
I’ve never been to Penang or anywhere in that part of the world and yet reading this book, I feel like I was right there. I can smell the coconut milk and the food cooking on the streets, Feel the sweat from the humidity etc. Clare has a real way to bringing a location to life. I really enjoyed getting to know more about some characters I first encountered in the Prisoner of Penang. I one clicked the third book in the series as I have to find out more about what happened to these people (they feel real) after the War.
A woman’s courage, whatever comes her way
Irresistible premise! I think that, in her shoes, we would all make the same choice as Evie, so finding out what happens is addictive! A young single woman doomed to penury in England takes up the written offer of marriage from an older widower she danced with once as a teenager – and remembers as ‘handsome’. As he owns a rubber plantation in Malaysia, Evie’s adventure into foreign territory is both literal and marital.
Clare Flynn brings wartime colonial Malaysia to life in such rich detail that you feel you are there, discovering its food, lush landscapes and unbearable humidity. Her feel for the period in dialogue and attitudes is totally convincing. If the tropical colours weren’t so vivid, I’d have experienced every scene in black and white film, with Clark Gable, Ava Gardener and Grace Kelly.
I warmed to Evie straight away. She shows the kind of courage displayed by so many women in times where the rights I take for granted now did not exist. Kindness, loyalty and making the best of whatever comes her way are ‘ordinary’ virtues that keep her true to herself. And what comes her way is sometimes heartbreaking.
The relationship with her stepdaughter is a joy and there are many compensations for the hardships she suffers. I usually choose books with rebel heroines who flaunt their difference and defy the world but thoroughly enjoyed this reminder of how so many women found their own way to live fully, within constraints that make me angry.
If you start reading, you won’t stop – guaranteed! I’ve just finished ‘The Painter of Penang’ and enjoyed it just as much.
A wonderful period piece that had me hurrying back to it at every opportunity. The prose is lovely and also the narration is charming. This was a great treat.
I thoroughly enjoyed being swept back to the heat, the tropical landscape, the culture and people of Malaya prior to, and during, WWII, in Clare Flynn’s The Pearl of Penang.
I especially loved how the author wove together an engaging story with well-researched details about Malaya and its rubber plantations.
I found myself fighting for our heroine, Evie every step of the way of her journey, from the beginning when we meet her as a quiet young girl working as rich woman’s companion, through her acceptance of a marriage proposal from a Malay rubber plantation-owner she’d only met once, years ago.
I was by Evie’s side as she lived through the tragedies and triumphs of her marriage to the cold and unloving, Douglas Barrington, as she endures the often spiteful and cruel British expatriates, and the shallow ex-pat life. I feared for her as the threat of Japanese occupation of Malay became a reality.
With its gripping storyline, very real characters, and easy-to-read prose, I would highly recommend The Pearl of Penang as a novel to lose yourself in.
I have read and loved all of Clare Flynn’s books, and this one did not disappoint.
Set mainly in Penang prior to and during World War II.
Evie is working as a companion to an elderly lady when she receives a written proposal which will change her life.
This book is so well written and researched; the reader is taken along with Evie as she begins an incredible journey.
This book is highly recommended.