There’s been a bit of a buzz in India about Sarita Mandanna’s debut novel, Tiger Hills. Quite apart from the large advance she reportedly received for it, it is set in the Coorg region in southern India, an area rarely explored in English literature, even though it is often touted as the ‘Scotland of India’.

Set in the Coorg’s lush coffee plantations, this is the story of a beautiful, feisty young woman, Devi, her childhood friend, Devanna, and Machu, the tiger killer. The first time Devi meets Machu, she decides that he is the one for her. But Devanna in turn loves Devi deeply and the tragic consequences of his unspoken love will tear all their lives apart.

Tiger Hills also explores the changing political climate in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century India, and the effects of colonialism and then independence on this hill community. A sweeping saga, this is a tantalising read, with some critics labelling it a cross between The Thorn Birds and Gone with the Wind.