Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel
tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political
and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak
forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and
into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the
Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and
years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that
have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are
illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni
calls "a master storyteller."
"I will never forget the young and old Rajkumar, Dolly, the Princesses,
the forests of teak, the wealth that made families and wars. A wonderful
novel. An incredible story." --Grace Paley
"A rich, layered epic that probes the meaning of identity and
homeland--a literary territory that is as resonant now, in our
globalized culture, as it was when the sun never set on the British
Empire." --Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A novelist of dazzling ingenuity." --San Francisco Chronicle