At her christening a princess is given the gift of "ordinariness" by a fairy, and the consequences of that eventually take her to a nearby palace where, having run away to become a fourteenth assistant kitchen maid, she meets the prince for her.

Twenty-year-old Amanda Derrington is on an extended cruise with her uncle when she decides to make a short side trip to the sunwashed island of Cyprus. But even before the ship arrives in port, there is a suspicious death. What Amanda had meant to be a pleasant excursion quickly takes a turn for the worse in this classic novel of suspense and romance by one of our most celebrated writers.

When young Sarah Parrish takes a skiing vacation to Gulmarg, a resort nestled in the mountains above the fabled Vale of Kashmir, she anticipates an entertaining but uneventful stay. But when she discovers that the deaths of two in her party, are the result of foul play, she finds herself entrusted with a mission of unforseen importance. And when she leaves the ski slopes for the Waterwitch, a private houseboat on the placid shores of the Dal Lake...

This sweeping epic set in 19th-century India begins in the foothills of the towering Himalayas and follows a young Indian-born orphan as he's raised in England and later returns to India where he falls in love with an Indian princess and struggles with cultural divides."The Far Pavilions "is itself a Himalayan achievement, a book we hate to see come to an end. It is a passionate, triumphant story that excites us, fills us with joy, move us to tears,...

A haunting tale of the love of an English officer for an Indian princess, set against the splendor of Imperial India in the 19th century.