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3.5 

The Glass Palace

By Amitav Ghosh
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND LOS ANGELES TIMES

“A rich, layered epic that probes the meaning of identity and homeland— a literary territory that is as resonant now, in our globalized culture, as it was when the sun never set on the British Empire.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni calls “a master storyteller.”

Praise for The Glass Palace

“An absorbing story of a world in transition, brought to life through characters who love and suffer with equal intensity.”—J. M. Coetzee

“There is no denying Ghosh’s command of culture and history. . . . [He] proves a writer of supreme skill and intelligence.”The Atlantic Monthly

“I will never forget the young and old Rajkumar, Dolly, the Princesses, the forests of teak, the wealth that made families and wars. A wonderful novel. An incredible story.”—Grace Paley

“A novelist of dazzling ingenuity.”San Francisco Chronicle

184 Reviews

3.5
Thinking Face
MultilayeredRealisticComing of ageEasy to read
“The book starts off very well with an interesting plot and the promise of a rich cultural and historical experience. And Amitav does do justice to the cultural and historical aspects of the book. However, personally the book falls flat to me at various places. After a point of time, there were too many characters and the story is jumping hoops. It almost felt as if the story was rushing by to fit in a predefined number of pages. Amitav is a splendid writer- reading his words gives you the feeling of reading the work of an author who knows his way through English literature. The writing is beautiful, the thoughts of individual characters are deep but again it abruptly moves decades to a new scenario before you absorb. Overall, i’m unable to push myself to read this book past the second decade. It’s beautifully written yet difficult to keep up because of the rushed plot and too many characters. Maybe i’ll pick it up sometime later.”
Slightly Smiling Face
BelievableChange and growDiverse representationLikeableMultilayeredSatisfying conclusionSteady pacingWell-structuredBeautifulHistoricalImmersive world-buildingBeautifully-written

About Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and spent his childhood in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and northern India. He studied in Delhi and Egypt and at Oxford and taught at various Indian and American universities. Author of a travel book and three acclaimed novels, Ghosh has also written for Granta, The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Observer. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

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