Amitav Ghosh is the author of ten highly acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction which include the Booker Prize shortlisted Sea of Poppies (book one of the Ibis Trilogy), River of Smoke, The Glass Palace and The Shadow Lines. He has won numerous prizes, some of which are the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Pushcart Prize and the Grinzane Cavour Prize. He divides his time between New York and India.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. Through this brilliant and impassioned story of love and war, Amitav Ghosh presents a ruthless appraisal of the horrors of colonialism and capitalist exploitation.'A rich, layered epic that probes the meaning of identity and homeland''There is no denying Ghosh's command of culture and history ... [He] proves a writer of supreme skill and intelligence''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''A novelist of dazzling ingenuity''An absorbing story of a world in transition, brought to life through characters who love and suffer with equal intensity'
