The Glass Palace is a historical novel spanning a century of South Asian history, narrated through the story of two families, for three generations. For each that I was reading, I was sure that it would be my favourite part of the book, and yet even as other characters emerged and changed the colour of the narrative, I was glued to the page. Rajkumar, Dolly, Uma, Neel, Dinu, Alison, Manju, Arjun are all such beautifully crafted characters; and even the minor characters feel like they could gaze at you through the words, like the exiled King and Queen of Burma, Thebaw and Supalayat (who really existed). Ghosh is incredibly meticulous in his research—both field research and documentary: he even lived in Myanmar in order to write the Burmese sections of the novel—and the thoroughness shows in his writing. Historical events, cultural details are woven into the pattern of the story and they breathe in the lives of different characters.
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The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh
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The Glass Palace is a historical novel spanning a century of South Asian history, narrated through the story of two families, for three generations. For each that I was reading, I was sure that it would be my favourite part of the book, and yet even as other characters emerged and changed the colour of the narrative, I was glued to the page. Rajkumar, Dolly, Uma, Neel, Dinu, Alison, Manju, Arjun are all such beautifully crafted characters; and even the minor characters feel like they could gaze at you through the words, like the exiled King and Queen of Burma, Thebaw and Supalayat (who really existed). Ghosh is incredibly meticulous in his research—both field research and documentary: he even lived in Myanmar in order to write the Burmese sections of the novel—and the thoroughness shows in his writing. Historical events, cultural details are woven into the pattern of the story and they breathe in the lives of different characters.