Author: John Shor
Publisher: New American Library
Pages: 344
Price: Rs 819
ISBN:0451218469
Genre: Historic-fiction/ romance
Ratings: 4 out of 5
Source: Borrowed
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Buy Beneath a marble sky from amazon.com Summary:
The Novel is a remniscence of Princess Jehanara, beloved daughter of Emperor Jehangir and Mumtaz..Set during the magnificinet Mughal era , novel is about power, lust..This is also a tale personal between love and duty that Jehanara is forced to make to safeguard her father from his own son Aurangazeb who is all set to seize the trone from him...Among all these Jehangir's desire of building Taj Mahal stands tall in the loving memory of his wife Mumtaz...
Review:
The best part of historic fiction is that , they transcends the reader into a period about which they can only dream about....The characters keep us alive through all of it and enlighten us in an engaging way...I love everything about Taj Mahal, though there has been many infamous anecdotes attached to it, still this grand musoleum is a thing of beauty that has stood the test of time over the years..Beneath a marble sky is through Jehanara's eyes., she is the favourite daughter of Emperor Jehangir who has been striken by the grief of his wife's Mumtaz's death...The tale unfolds from her childhood through various incidents till the completion of Taj Mahal, alongside goes her own struggle of existence as a princess,daughter, wife, lover, mother in a male dominated hypocritical domain ...Everyday there are constant conflicts, brothers trying to seize her father's throne, her marriage that is running into a total disaster , her love striken with Isa the architect of Taj Mahal and so on..Shor has built Jehanara's character with poise, candor she is a woman of essence who endures all the tortures forced upon her by her husband and brothers, yet she cruises through for the welfare of her family and the empire....She has been painted as an epitome of selflessness who is torn between her heart and mind, she is often at the cross roads of duty and love...Yet she does it with style...The beauty of Mughal era is captivatingly put in through the novel, the lavish courtyard, stunning palaces with its intricate architecture, all are painted across the readers mind afresh..I loved everything about Jehanara's childhood, the red fort fantasy was something I treasured on in its splendor and glory...My only let off was that Shor had taken too much of liberty in playing with the charcters and era, though its a fiction it could mislead many, but that could be added as a positive side of Shor who has been able to snapshot into a real picture..The novel takes a dramatic turn, at time with all sweetness of love many a times with ruthless lust for supremacy all in the gone by era of 17th century...
This book makes it a perfect 10 on 10 for the new author challenge
Book 17 for SAC
I always wanted to know more about the Mughal era. You allude to the fact that the author takes some liberties with the historical facts so I suppose that this would not be a great place to learn.
ReplyDeleteThis does sound like an interesting and fun book.
It is an interesting read..it goes great with all the describing mughal granduer, but the characters have been lil creative, may be that is the reason it is a fiction..To know more about Mughal empire,The empire of the great Mughals-history, art and culture by Annemarie Schimmel is a good one though not great.. But the thing is this book has too many facts and figures that you may not like it all together...
ReplyDeletehi vb :)
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting my blog. I luv photography and always wanted to learn, u have a real good set of books listed in your blog. nice work
tc and keep writing.I also like your about me part, quite well written and nice imagery.