Last Quadrant

Published by John Murray, London 1981
Reissued by Marshall Cavendish, Singapore 2018.

As a great typhoon bears down on the Japanese coastal city of Kobe, a disparate group of people are caught in the storm and seek shelter in a nearby orphanage run by an English doctor, Eva Kraig. Twenty years before Eva adopted a Japanese American baby, Akiko. Now, the girl’s conniving mother has unexpectedly returned to claim her grown daughter.

As the winds intensify, so do the private struggles of the characters. As the violence of the storm bears down upon them, the group draw together, their perceptions of themselves and each other taking on new dimensions. The terrible night becomes a turning point for each of them.

‘Meira Chand has taken this theme and worked it exquisitely…Miss Chand’s exact and fastidious way with words is a joy.’

Elizabeth Berridge. Daily Telegraph 12th August 1981.

‘…sensitive and powerful. The poetic quality of her prose…re-appears here with the same sensory conviction.’

Louis Allen. Times Literary Supplement 18th September 1981.

‘..this is a novel that will be remembered for a long time; and it will establish Meira Chand’s reputation as a very distinguished writer indeed.’

A.N.Wilson. Spectator 1st August 1981