The Glass Palace - Amitav Ghosh

They say that magic spells itself from well written words. How a world of words and alphabets can be majestic comes very true with Amitav Ghosh’s Master epic book “The Glass Palace”. It took me perhaps an age to complete reading this book due to my other commitments, but whenever I picked this book up in between intervals for a read, it seemed as though the world around me took  a change. I was altogether transported to the very era of the story.

It gave me Goosebumps to know that the author had invested five years of his life to write this epic masterpiece which I often crossed by, but never picked up.  Travel, research and writing of this book is so very evident once you read it. Majestic is the word to describe such a work.

The story follows the destiny of three families and three countries spanning well over from 1885 to the late nineties. Three generations of three families get intertwined with each other at various timelines of history and the resultant story leaves you just speechless and spell bound.  Unlike many other historical fictions, reading “The Glass Palace” opens up our eyes to a mountain of events and facts which we perhaps had never even heard off. For instance, I never knew that the last king and queen of the kingdom of Burma were exiled to India by the Britishers and lived their balance lives in a colossal mansion in the city of Ratnagiri. They had even learned the local language i.e. Marathi & Hindi. Then comes, the entry of the principal character of Rajkumar and Dolly subsequent to which the massive flow of the story begins.

The most intriguing part of the entire narration is the fact that every character here has a story of his own and somehow that story is so very connected to the overall  future of the events that takes place. In addition to amazing characterization, there comes an immense and knowledgeable flow of cultural diversities and rituals displayed in beautiful structures of the English language. This amazing story of that takes place over three generations of multi class families of south East Asia leaves you with such an impact that perhaps, you would be seen living the characters even days after the reading is done with.

From the ever heart trenching exile of the King of Burma’s Family to their stay at Ratnagiri, from the road days of Rajkumar to the massive rag to riches journey of his, the epic destruction of the land of the gold and the heartwarming ends of each of the characters makes “The Glass Palace “, one of the best written works by an Indian in modern literature writing (Though the first print of the book was first published in UK).

The Glass Palace is a majestic journey of words.