Time Change

Time Change is the story of the education of a woman. A precocious American girl growing up in upper-middle-class New York is drawn to the East before it becomes popular and then marries the king-to-be of a tiny Himalayan land. With the novelist's eye for detail, Hope Cooke tells of growing up in the Victorian atmosphere first of her wealthy, snobbish grandmother's home; then with her aunt and uncle, the U.S. Ambassador to Iran. Between brilliant terms at Sarah Lawrence College she plunged into an often hilarious, if occasionally painful, obsession with the East. It was in Darjeeling, India, during a summer's stay, alone in the cozy atmosphere of a family hotel, that Cooke met the recently widowed Crown Prince of Sikkim. The story of her engagement and wedding to the Prince and her life in this exotic hidden-away world became the center of international attention and fascination. It is told in full here, for the first time, in Hope Cooke's own voice, with a sharp eye and an uncommon ear for atmosphere and intrigue. It was very soon after their marriage that her husband succeeded his father to the throne. Nearly submerged by the responsibilities of her husband's public (and private) preoccupations and weighed down by the isolation, Cooke worked with children and the schools and coordinated the handicrafts industry for export. Gradually, Hope Cooke grew from a spirited, gifted girl to a many-faceted woman of depth and independence. Eventually Sikkim, increasingly a pawn of power politics, was annexed by India. After a harrowing siege at the beginning of the takeover, in which she and her children were held hostage, Cooke returned to the United States to begin a new life as immigrant and adult. - Jacket flap.