It's 1906 in pre-independence India. Madeline, a lively young English girl, develops a fascination for her handsome horse groom, Azeem. In idyllic Nainital, between riding lessons for Madeline through pine forests, and English lessons for Azeem under a pear tree, an impossible, dangerous love, breaching the boundaries of race and class, starts to blossom.

Almost five decades later, in New York, the publisher Alfred Allye, who has lost his wife Rose, is nostalgic. He thinks about India; of the inviolate connection he shares with Azeem; about Rose and her deep attachment to Madeline. The recollections refuse to still; they spread outwards and onwards, carrying far-reaching ripples.

Once Upon a Summer, the latest novel by one of the most lyrical writers of our times, is a multi-generational ode to love. Equally, it is a story about the hold of memory; about its capacity to move across time and space and permeate lives.