This was a goodreads win for me; literally and figuratively. I won the book through the goodreads giveaways but also won a new favorite author. Sundaresan's flawless research is coupled with a real gift for pacing and weaving intrigue into 16th and 17th century India. The characters from the r...
Indu Sundaresan has done it again. Marvelous read.The daughters of Emperor Jahangir, Jahanara and Roshanara, plot and scheme against one another in an attempt to gain power over their father’s harem. As royal princesses they are confined in the imperial harem and not allowed to marry. However, th...
Not many times I give a book a 1, let alone one from one of my favorite authors. I found this book so difficult to read. Everything was so flat - the characters, the overdone description of the Taj Mahal, the court intrigue. I just felt nothing was developed enough, but yet some of the descrip...
Koh-I-Noor: So many were and remain enamoured by this diamond.Mesmerising detail, pictorial language, excellent period description.This tale sweeps from 1809 to 1893 with a revolving set of players: English, Afghani, Indian, each of whom harbours and then passes on the mythical diamond, the Koh-I...
If you like Philippa Gregory and her genre of Harlequin romance-cum-historical fiction, there’s a good possibility you’ll like this book. Personally, I just couldn’t get into it. I read the first 50 pages, skimmed the next 240 just for the sake of writing a better-informed review, and couldn’t ...
The love story of Emperor Jahangir and Mehrunnisa, begun in the critically praised debut novel The Twentieth Wife, continues in Indu Sundaresan's The Feast of Roses. This lush new novel tells the story behind one of the great tributes to romantic love and one of the seven wonders of the world -- ...
In 1963 Seattle a grieving daughter opens a mysterious trunk. There she finds buried among silk saris, jewelry, and trinkets, a story. The story she has been waiting all her life to hear. The story of the American father who raised her and the Indian mother she never knew. In the early days of Am...
200 BC–AD 300)It is the letter that brings him back, because he did not know she could even write. So he comes here to stand in the courtyard, in front of this man who was once so beloved. The letter rests carefully folded in his shirt pocket, the strap of his camera holding it to his chest. The ...