Book Group May 2023 - I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam

Join us at Golden Hare on Monday, 22nd of May for a book group discussing Devika Ponnambalam's novel I Am Not Your Eve!

If you're after an evening of lively discussion, this may be the event for you. By purchasing the book you reserve your space in our book group, which will take place at 6.30pm in our shop in Stockbridge. Any questions? We're happy to help, just get in touch via email!

I Am Not Your Eve is the story of Teha'amana, Tahitian muse and child-bride to the painter Paul Gauguin. She shares her thougths as he works on one of his masterpieces, The Spirit of The Dead Keeps Watch, a work so important to Gauguin that it haunts his later self-portrait. As Teha'amana tells her story, other voices of the island rise: Hina goddess of the moon, a lizard watching from the eaves, Gauguin's mask of Teha'amana carved from one of the trees.

Woven in are the origin myths that cradled Polynesia before French colonists brought the Christian faith. Distant diary entries by Gauguin's daughter Aline - the same age as her father's new 'wife' - recall the other hemisphere of his life. This is the novel that gives Teha'amana a voice; one that travels with the myths and legends of the island, across history and asks to be heard.