The Glass Palace

"Through the intertwining stories of Dolly and Rajkumar, the history of the twentieth century is told across three generations, spread over three interlinked parts of the British Empire: Burma, with its conflicting undercurrents of discontent; Malaya, with its vast rubber plantations, and India, amid growing opposition to British rule. Here, too, is the story of Dolly, bound to the magisterial Queen Supayalat, and her ill-fated struggle to maintain the standard of a vanished court while living in exile in the small Indian district town of Ratnagiri. Through Arjun, an Indian officer and soldier of the Empire, the story moves into another generation, one caught in the crossfire between old loyalties and new aspirations. With World War II and the terrifying arrival of the Japanese juggernaut, Rajkumar is again set adrift. In an ocean of refugees fleeing war and devastation, he and his family make a treacherous one thousand-mile trek across the border to India.