The Glass Palace

Rajkumar is only a boy, helping out on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace in Mandalay, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and court into exile. He is rescued by a far-seeing Chinese merchant and with him builds up a great logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family and one of their attendants, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled, and his family and friends become inextricably linked with theirs. Through the lives of the wider family and connections, an extraordinary story of this century is told: in Malaya, amid the vast rubber plantations, in India, among the growing nationalist feeling, in America where ideas of democracy and terrorist action, as well as business acumen, could be learnt. By the time World War II arrives, Rajkumar - who had made and lost several fortunes -has spread his family and influence from the great estate at Morningside where his son will be involved in the British collapse in Singapore, and one of his relations in the remarkable rebellion of the Indian troops against their British officers. Another of the great characters, the formidable Indian widow, Uma, becomes a spearhead of the Indian nationalist movement and provides a final refuge for the battered remnants of the family as they flee from Burma before the Japanese advance in a horrifying trek across appalling terrain. And it is his grand-daughter who survives that experience who brings the readers back to contemporary Burma, and completes the circle of the family started so long ago in Mandalay. Amitav Ghosh, author of "The Calcutta Chromosome" and "The Shadow Lives", makes his great cast of characters live in readers' minds, and peoples and illuminates the extraordinary, turbulent history of the Burmese over the last 100 years.

Literature & Fiction

Ghosh, Amitav

Literary

TRAFALGAR SQUARE +

Rajkumar is only another boy, helping on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and all the Court into exile! He is rescued by the far-seeing Chinese merchant, and with him builds up a logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled. The picture of the tension between the Burmese, the Indian and the British, is excellent. Among the great range of characters are one of the court ladies, Miss Dolly, whom he marries: and the redoubtable Jonakin, part of the British-educated Indian colony, who with her husband has been put in charge of the Burmese exiled court. The story follows the fortunes - rubber estates in Malaya, businesses in Singapore, estates in Burma - which Rajkumar, with his Chinese, British and Burmese relations, friends and associates, builds up - from 1870 through the Second World War to the scattering of the extended family to New York and Thailand, London and Hong Kong in the post-war years.

Contemporary

The Borough Press

HARPER/COLLINS

The new novel from the author of The Glass Palace, the widely-acclaimed bestseller. The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal. An Indian myth says that when the river Ganges first descended from the heavens, the force of the cascade was so great that the earth would have been destroyed if it had not been for the god Shiva, who tamed the torrent by catching it in his dreadlocks. It is only when the Ganges approaches the Bay of Bengal that it frees itself and separates into thousands of wandering strands. The result is the Sundarbans, an immense stretch of mangrove forest, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea. It is this vast archipelago of islands that provides the setting for Amitav Ghosh's new novel. In the Sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland and every day thousands of hectares of forest disappear only to re-emerge hours later. Dense as the mangrove forests are, from a human point of view it is only a little less barren than a desert. There is a terrible, vengeful beauty here, a place teeming with crocodiles, snakes, sharks and man-eating tigers. This is the only place on earth where man is more often prey than predator. And it is into this terrain that an eccentric, wealthy Scotsman named Daniel Hamilton tried to create a utopian society, of all races and religions, and conquer the might of the Sundarbans. In January 2001, a small ship arrives to conduct an ecological survey of this vast but little-known environment, and the scientists on board begin to trace the journeys of the descendants of this society.

The Hungry Tide

London: Harpercollins Publishers

Fom the author of The Glass Palace, the widely-acclaimed bestseller. The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal. An Indian myth says that when the river Ganges first descended from the heavens, the force of the cascade was so great that the earth would have been destroyed if it had not been for the god Shiva, who tamed the torrent by catching it in his dreadlocks. It is only when the Ganges approaches the Bay of Bengal that it frees itself and separates into thousands of wandering strands. The result is the Sundarbans, an immense stretch of mangrove forest, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea. It is this vast archipelago of islands that provides the setting for Amitav Ghosh's new novel. In the Sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland and every day thousands of hectares of forest disappear only to re-emerge hours later. Dense as the mangrove forests are, from a human point of view it is only a little less barren than a desert. There is a terrible, vengeful beauty here, a place teeming with crocodiles, snakes, sharks and man-eating tigers. This is the only place on earth where man is more often prey than predator. And it is into this terrain that an eccentric, wealthy Scotsman named Daniel Hamilton tried to create a utopian society, of all races and religions, and conquer the might of the Sundarbans. In January 2001, a small ship arrives to conduct an ecological survey of this vast but little-known environment, and the scientists on board begin to trace the journeys of the descendants of this society.

Genre Fiction

Harpercollins

Fom the author of the glass palace, the widely-acclaimed bestseller the hungry tide is a rich, exotic saga set in calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the bay of bengal an indian myth says that when the river ganges first descended from the heavens, the force of the cascade was so great that the earth would have been destroyed if it had not been for the god shiva, who tamed the torrent by catching it in his dreadlocks it is only when the ganges approaches the bay of bengal that it frees itself and separates into thousands of wandering strands the result is the sundarbans, an immense stretch of mangrove forest, a half-drowned land where the waters of the himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea it is this vast archipelago of islands that provides the setting for amitav ghosh’s new novel in the sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland and every day thousands of hectares of forest disappear only to re-emerge hours later dense as the mangrove forests

The Hungry Tide [Paperback] [Feb 01, 2011] Ghosh, Amitav

Harper-Collins India

THE GLASS PALACE.

HaperCollins

The Shadow Lines

major novel on India, award-winning. on India in 1940s and 1950s, widely used as text. excellent reviews

Ravi Dayal Publisher

As he searches for information about the life of an Indian slave in twelfth-century Egypt, the author, a Hindu, comes face to face with the Muslim world and culture of modern Egypt, in a narrative that juxtaposes ancient history and modern travelogue.

In an Antique Land

History

Africa

South Asia Books

The Shadow Lines (King Penguin)

Penguin??Books

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Books by Ghosh, Amitav

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ghosh, Amitav. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Glass Palace

The Glass Palace

The Glass Palace

The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide [Paperback] [Feb 01, 2011] Ghosh, Amitav

THE GLASS PALACE.

The Shadow Lines

In an Antique Land

The Shadow Lines (King Penguin)