The Happy Valley — Liz MacKie

A novel about travel, writing and other people: "The traveler was, it appeared, being conveyed on a litter or some kind of roofless palanquin, or possibly on the roof of a palanquin, through a forest of flowering trees which might be an orchard, to a destination favored for the occasion by a host of highly emotional people whose language she did not recognize." - from The Happy Valley