Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree

Product Information

One final shout out about this book and that is the characters: they were all wonderful. However, my particular favourite was Flappy Scott-Booth – the bossy, snobby, interfering head of Badley Compton Ladies’ Book Club. She was an absolute delight to read about and added several (unintentional on her part) comedy moments. I’m desperately hoping she appears in more books in the future.

Okay. I wished for a beautiful voice so I can sing with Mama’s guitar,’ she said, then raising her hazel eyes saw that they were both laughing. Tussen Santi, haar neef en Sofia groet iets meer dan vriendschap. Als ze zwanger raakt, wordt ze door haar vader en moeder naar het buitenland gestuurd om abortus te laten plegen. Sofia is echter helemaal niet van plan om de zwangerschap te beëindigen. Zij wil, samen met Santi, ergens een nieuw bestaan opbouwen, met de baby. Er komt echter een spaak in het wiel (de brieven worden onderschept) en allebei denken, dat de ander toch niet zo verder wil. Sofia geeft uiteindelijk haar baby op voor adoptie en vertrekt naar Londen om daar werk te vinden. Beiden trouwen en stichten een gezin. Als dan Maria, de zus van Santi op sterven ligt, schrijft de moeder van Maria haar een brief of ze toch na al die jaren niet afscheid kan nemen van Maria. Als ze terug is in Argentinië, blijkt, dat de liefde nog niet over is. Op Santa Catalina hoort ze, na zoveel jaar, ook wat er van haar eerste zoontje geworden is.De Argentijnse Sofia Solanas wordt verliefd op haar neef Santi. Na een tijdje blijken de gevoelens wederzijds te zijn, en de twee beginnen een relatie. Dit wordt echter als bloedschande gezien in haar familie, dus ze houden de relatie geheim. Maar dan raakt Sofia zwanger en komen haar ouders te weten dat ze iets heeft met Santi. Sofia wordt van iedereen weggehouden, tot haar ouders geregeld hebben dat ze naar Genève kan bij kennissen en een abortus laten doen. Santi weet niets van de zwangerschap. When I asked my father how come the military had so much control, he told me that it was partly due to the fact that it was the Spanish military who conquered Latin America in the sixteenth century. ‘Consider the military like school prefects with weapons,’ he once said, and as a child this seemed to make sense. I mean, who’s more powerful than that? I don’t know how they did it with all the chopping and changing, but my family was always canny enough to stay on the right side of whichever government was in power.

Santa Montefiore (1970) debuteerde met Onder de ombu-boom. In de jaren negentig woonde ze in Buenos Aires, de geboorteplaats van haar moeder. Daar schreef ze dit debuut. Still, in spite of her power and her prestige the upper classes considered her little more than a common tart who had slept her way out of poverty to become the richest, most famous woman in the world. But they were a minority; when she died in 1952 at the age of thirty-three, two million people turned out to witness her funeral and her workers petitioned the Pope to grant her a sainthood. Her body was embalmed for ever like a waxwork by a Spanish specialist called Dr Pedro Ara, and after being buried in various secret places all over the world for fear that it would inspire a cult, it was laid to rest beside the ‘oligarchs’ she hated in the elegant cemetery of La Recoleta in Buenos Aires in 1976. Several years ago I was intrigued by Santa Montefiore’s first three novels, which I have never read as they never became available to me in sequence. This is Santa Montefiore’s newest novel, and my first reading of her work.There were a few twists in the story that I did not anticipate, although anticipating outcomes and being right about them is fun, it is a real delight to me when they are unexpected.

Fernando, Santi’s elder brother, was only a four-goal handicap. It irritated Fernando that his younger brother beat him at everything. It was even more humiliating that not only was he a superior athlete but he was superior and lame. It hadn’t escaped his notice, either, that Santi was not only the apple of his parents’ eye, but the entire fruit bowl. So he willed his brother to fail, he ground his teeth together at night from willing so hard, but Santi seemed invincible. Now the bloody dentist had given him an ugly mould to wear in his mouth at night to save his teeth – another nail Santi had happily hammered into his coffin. This is a relaxing read, perfect for long Summer days on the beach. The characters were well drawn and likeable, even Carina, who softerns as the book progresses. Es el primer libro que leo de la autora y la realidad es que su pluma me resultó muy sencilla, simple, fácil de leer aunque pueda resultar algo lento, con un buen conocimiento de los temas que se tratan y muchos personajes que acompañan a los protagonistas.Anna Melody was named after her mother, Emer Melody. Dermot loved her ‘tuneful’ name so much that he wanted to call their baby simply Melody O’Dwyer, but Emer thought Melody on its own sounded like the name you’d give a cat and so the child was christened Anna after her grandmother. Look, who cares, Santi. No one gives a damn. Anyway, we’ll keep your secret,’ said Sofia, more interested now in her wish than the squabble that she had ignited between brother and sister. Gracias, Soledad. We will not wait for Señorita Sofia but eat as normal at nine,’ she replied and disappeared inside to talk to her sister-in-law.