Rarely does a book manage to blend a historical context and remain a gripping love story. Sculpting the Elephant is just that. Sylvia Vetta’s deft plotting places the reader at the heart of the complex love affair between India and Britain. Set in contemporary Oxford and India, the book narrates a fascinating story, an endearing romance, between Ramma and Harry.
Ramma is a cosmopolitan Indian student, studying amidst the gothic architecture of Oxford. Harry is an Oxford antique dealer who has recently purchased a colonial chest of drawers. Ramma takes on the task of producing original material for her doctorate on the origins of the Buddhist faith and the teachings of Ashoka. Harry, with his new acquisition and its contents, may hold the key to Ramma’s quest.
Their love encounters obstacles presented by the well-constructed boundaries of race, religion and culture. We, as readers are willing them to come through and fight for their love, but the challenges they face seem, at times, to be almost insurmountable.
Alongside the love story is a parallel historical plot line, woven into the narrative of a person who works for the British Raj on the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. Sylvia Vetta has invented an intriguing maverick Victorian, called Bartholomew Carew. He arrives in India believing in the myths of the Raj but soon becomes disillusioned.
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