Now a days i’m on a quest for reading indian authors & Amitav Ghosh is making waves in theis circle. After reading this book, I believe that indian authors are also doing quite well when it comes to doing thorough secondary/primary research before the book.(It took the author 5 yrs to write this book).The book is a story of 3 families across 3 generations & 3 countries.
Book brings out the socio-economic picture of india, burma & malaya during pre- independence era very well. The anguish & mental-emotional trauma of different classes esp. the indian soldiers of british army during that time has been articulated very well. One feels a connect to the characters of that era & gets an understanding of events during that time. The book seems to have inspiration from real life events aswell & it makes the storyline more realistic. The language is also very poignant & one can easily visualize the situation & scenery of different locales.
One thing that I didn’t like about the book was the ending.Last 50 pages or so seemed to be quite rushed & I got an impression that author didn’t want to exceed some page limit for the book. There was some loss in continuity of story but still a thoroughly enjoyable book.