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Catagory: Historical Fiction

Angria

Kanhoji Angre is born to Tukoji Sankhpal, keeper of the Suvarnadurg Fort for Shivaji, emperor of the Marathas. A child of the seas, Kanhoji is as much at home in the turbulent waters of Konkan as in the forts and forests of the Desha mainland.

But the enemies of their empire are never too far away.

The Mughals are in constant battle with the Marathas on land, while the Siddis and the newly arrived Portuguese threaten to destroy them at sea. There’s also the British East India Company who have arrived as traders and settled on the island of Kulaba, paying taxes to Kanhoji.

Kanhoji must rise above conspiracy, deceit, war and family politics to become the Samudratala Shivaji—‘Shivaji of the Seas’.

An astounding debut, Angria is the tale of one of history’s most feared naval commanders. Amid the smell of gunpowder and salt, Sohail Rekhy brings to life a momentous era when the war for swaraj was fought on the seas of India and when only one man stood between the firangis and the Desha. This is the chronicle of a hero whose story has been lost to the waves of time.

The Man Who Avenged Bhagat Singh

In 1929, Bhagat Singh surrenders after a daring bomb attack in the heart of Delhi’s assembly. Behind bars, he prepares for an ideological battle against the empire. However, a shocking betrayal shatters his world.

Phanindra Nath Ghosh, a trusted comrade, becomes a British approver, revealing every secret of the HSRA. His damning testimony leads to multiple arrests, and then the British hang Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo. Popularly known as the ‘king’s witness’, he had singlehandedly brought on an armed revolution.

But with their leaders gone and British oppression at its peak, surviving HSRA members rally around one burning desire: revenge. Their target is the man who dismantled their life’s work. But with limited resources, their hopes rest on a lone figure.

From the shadows emerges Baikunth Sukul, an unassuming teacher and devoted admirer of Bhagat Singh. He swears to exact revenge on behalf of the martyrs and the HSRA.

Will he succeed in this nearly impossible mission?
What happens when he locks horns with the formidable British Raj?
And to what lengths will he go to avenge Bhagat Singh’s death?

India’s journey to Independence was filled with deeds of forgotten heroes. This is one such story of sacrifice and revenge—of a patriot against a traitor, a common man against the empire.

His Majesty’s Headhunters

Surprisingly little is known about the siege of Kohima, considered a game-changing event that altered the course of world history during the Second World War. His Majesty’s Headhunters adds to our understanding of this battle and shows how it redefined a whole era.

Providing a unique perspective of Nagaland and its warriors, this book uncovers the untold story of the siege, regarded as one of the more celebrated battles of D-Day and often referred to as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ by Western scholars. Historians even believe that this was the last battle of the British Empire
and the first battle of the ‘New India’.

However, that is just the tale told so far by everyone except the Nagas. The real history of this battle—which involved the Japanese Army, led by Lieutenant General Sato, and the Allied forces—is yet to be recounted. As Lt Gen. Sato is said to have remarked, if it were not for the Naga people, the Allied forces would have been defeated in Kohima, and the Japanese Army would have easily secured the Dimapur railway station and moved victoriously towards Bengal via Assam, thus reversing the outcome of the war.

This rare and deeply researched historical account, drawing on records left by the officers and soldiers who fought in Kohima, is a page-turner. It brings to light the valour and spirit of the Naga ‘headhunters’, who made the supreme sacrifice to protect the honour of their people.

Whisper in the Wind

‘All the stories in the world are whispered in the wind. Listen! And the wind will blow one into your head.’
These words, whispered by a madman, haunt Jamshed Fali Irani. The young heir to a business empire in Bombay, he is in Goa to try and pursue his dream of being a writer. Locked away in a crumbling, decrepit mansion, struggling to write as the monsoon rains down, the wind brings to him the cries of a little girl wandering the ruins nearby. Alice is trying to find her sister, Sara, who went missing years ago.
Jamshed makes a reluctant promise to help her and finds himself drawn into a story that is darker and more intriguing than any he could have imagined. With his new friend, Tania, to whom he is increasingly drawn, Jamshed attempts to unravel the mystery behind Sara’s disappearance.
Jamshed’s search leads him into a tangled tale of loyalty and deceit, at the heart of which lies murder. He has to find his way through a bewildering maze of contradictions as he tries to thread together answers to a mystery that involves a girl with the voice of an angel, a violin that plays the sorrows of the heart, and the bond between two friends who swear that not even death will do them part.
In this vividly written Gothic novel, alive with the sights and smells of pre-Independence Goa, Venita Coelho tells a captivating, suspenseful, sweeping tale like no other.

Sivakami’s Vow 4: Shattered Dream

To meditate lifelong at the feet of our lord-Kalki’s choice of Thirunavukkarasar’s words to end his magnum opus, Sivakami’s Vow, is indicative of the shift from romance to reflection, from the mundane to the spiritual.

Nine years have passed since Narasimha Varmar has ascended the throne to the Pallava kingdom … nine years that the dancer Sivakami has spent as a captive of the Chalukya emperor, Pulikesi. In that time, the Pallava emperor has been preparing to wage a bloody war against the Chalukyas-to fulfil his promise to Sivakami and his father. But the duties of a sovereign have driven him to make difficult choices in his personal life. Will friendships and allegiances change on account of this? With the passage of so much time, does Sivakami still yearn for vengeance? And what have the last nine years meant for the Pallava commander-in-chief, Paranjyothi, and the conniving bikshu, Naganandi?
As Kalki expertly weaves together various strands of honour, love and friendship in this fourth and final volume of Sivakami’s Vow, he takes the reader through a gamut of emotions. It is no surprise that this novel is considered a classic.

Lessons in Chemistry

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES and #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The multi-million copy bestseller
As read on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Best Debut Novel Award
British Book Awards Author of the Year

‘Sparky, rip-roaring, funny, with big-hearted fully formed, loveable characters’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘The most charming, life-enhancing novel I’ve read in ages. Strongly recommend’ INDIA KNIGHT
___________
Your ability to change everything – including yourself – starts here

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.

But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation.

Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time.
__________
A Book of the Year for: Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home, Stylist, TLS, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, Mail on Sunday, New York Times, India Knight, Hay Festival, Amazon and many others

SOON TO BE A MAJOR APPLE TV SERIES STARRING BRIE LARSON

‘Biting and cheerIng in exactly the right measure’ JOJO MOYES

‘I loved Lessons in Chemistry and am devastated to have finished it!’ NIGELLA LAWSON

‘Laugh-out-loud funny and brimming with life, generosity and courage’ RACHEL JOYCE

‘A novel that sparks joy with every page’ ELIZABETH DAY

‘Elizabeth Zott is an iconic heroine’ PANDORA SYKES

‘A page-turning and highly satisfying tale‘ MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE

The Forty Rules of Love

*The international bestseller from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World*

* One of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels that Shaped the World’*

“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough…”

Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella’s life – an emptiness once filled by love.

So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.

It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. . .

‘Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love’ Metro

‘Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent’ Daily Telegraph

‘The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself’ The Times

Naulakhi Kothi

William returns to Hindustan after eight long years in England as the newly appointed assistant commissioner of Jalalabad in pre-Partition Punjab. He dreams of returning to his ‘home’ in the idyllic Naulakhi Kothi, the titular bungalow built by his grandfather, but an irreversible turn of events awaits him, which changes not only his destiny, but that of the land forever.
Ali Akbar Natiq’s epic saga, Naulakhi Kothi, is an insightful portrayal of the zeitgeist of the times. The sweeping narrative begins in the years leading up to Partition and goes on till the eighties.
Translated by Naima Rashid, it is one of the most important novels of the twenty-first century.

To Kill A Mockingbird

___________________________________
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition.

Norwegian Wood

‘A masterly novel’ New York Times

‘Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami’s writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility’ Guardian

Read the haunting love story that turned Murakami into a literary superstar.

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.

*Murakami’s new book Novelist as a Vocation is available now*

‘Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around’ Time Out

‘Poignant, romantic and hopeless, it beautifully encapsulates the heartbreak and loss of faith’ Sunday Times

‘This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it’s also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows’ Independent on Sunday

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