''The Rains Came: A Novel of Modern India'' is the bestselling 1937 novel written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and conservationist Louis Bromfield. Set in the fictional princely state of Ranchipur during the final decades of the British Raj, the epic narrative weaves together a diverse cast of local Indians, British colonial officials, and Western missionaries. Their structured, often jaded lives are completely upended when a massive earthquake and subsequent catastrophic monsoon floods strike the region.
The book acts as a critique of imperial society and a story of personal transformation. The setting is Ranchipur, an Indian outpost struggling with the tensions of impending independence from Britain. Tom Ransome, a jaded, cynical British aristocrat and World War I veteran lives a bohemian life as a painter. Lady Edwina Esketh is Tom's beautiful, bored, and deeply selfish former girlfriend who arrives in town with her wealthy husband. Major Rama Safti is a brilliant, dedicated Hindu surgeon who becomes the focal point of Lady Esketh's unexpected reformation and forbidden love. Fern Simon is the daughter of American missionaries whose coming-of-age story and relationship with Tom injects fresh hope into the narrative.
When disaster strikes, the superficial social barriers collapse. The characters are forced to choose between selfishness and sacrifice as they battle the floods, fires, and subsequent disease outbreaks.
