“The Mission House” by Carys Davies

A story set in a hill town in Southern India where Englishman, Hilary Byrd, a Librarian, when back in the UK, still lives in his childhood home, apparently often cared for by his sister, Wyn. This location is an old colonial outpost, and there are many British aspects to the town where Hilary is able to settle into a routine, and feel relaxed and quite at ease.
He is experiencing a get away holiday but after finding the cities too hectic, hot and far from relaxing, takes a slow train up into the hills. On the journey he is befriended by the local Padre who says he can provide him with accommodation in the Mission House. He settles in and after a while uses the daily services of local rickshaw driver, Jamshed. Their relationship, after a faltering start, develops into a comfortable familiarity, which proves comforting for Hilary, who certainly has many demons inside his head.
The Padre is welcoming, and his adopted daughter, Priscilla who serves them with dish after dish during their regular dinners together, becomes a focus for Hilary as he begins to teach her to read, their lessons then branching out to cooking and more.
Jamshed’s stetson wearing nephew, Ravi, a barber, where Hilary starts getting his hair cut, is an interesting character, with whom Priscilla shares a secret love of Country and Western music. Their own story being the sub-plot behind the focus of the book which is on Hilary and his uncertainties in life, which leads him to misunderstand some of the Padre’s intentions.
Over the weeks and months all their relationships develop, and the sudden imminent return, and plans of the Canadian Henry Page, who normally inhabits the Mission House brings forward Hilary’s plans of departure and the concluding acts of the narrative.
A short enjoyable read, by an author who received much praise for her first novel “West” which was set in pioneering America, and could have been very loosely referred to as a Western!