The Splendor Of Silence

Internationally bestselling author Sundaresan pens her first novel set in the 20th century, merging her Indian and American inspirations into a heartrending tale of tragic love and clashing cultures in a time of war.

Indu Sundaresan Expertly Blends Together History, Memorable Characters, And The Sights, Colors And Smells Of India To Create A Hugely Compelling Novel. It Is, Quite Literally, A Feast For The Senses David Davidar, Author Of The House Of Blue Mangoes May 1942. Set Over Four Searing Pre-Monsoon Days. Sam Hawthorne, A Twenty-Five-Year-Old U.S. Army Captain, Arrives At The Princely State Of Rudrakot In Search Of His Missing Brother, Mike, Carrying With Him Wounds From Combat In Burma And Several Secrets. But Sam S Mission Is Threatened By The Unlikeliest Of Sources He Falls Hopelessly In Love With Mila, Daughter Of The Local Political Agent. Mila, Unexpectedly Attracted To Sam, Nurtures A Secret Of Her Own And Finds Herself Torn Between Loyalty To Her Family And Sam. The Splendor Of Silence Opens Twenty-One Years Later With Olivia, Sam S Daughter, Receiving A Trunk Of Treasures From India, Along With A Letter From An Unknown Narrator That Finally Fills All The Silences Of Her Childhood Telling Her The Story Of Her Parents Passionate And Enduring Love For Each Other That Throws Them In The Path Of Racial Prejudice, Nationalist Intrigue, And The Explosive Circumstances Of A Country And A Society On The Brink Of Independence From British Rule. Sweeping And Poignant, Reminiscent Of Paul Scott S Raj Quartet Novels, The Splendor Of Silence Is A Heartrending Tale Of Love And Clashing Cultures In A Time Of War.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Twentieth Wife, a novel based on the tumultuous history of a legendary 186-carat diamond—originating in India—and the men and women who possessed it. As empires rose and fell and mighty kings jostled for power, its glittering radiance never dimmed. It is the “Mountain of Light”—the Kohinoor diamond—and its facets reflect a sweeping story of love, adventure, conquest, and betrayal. Its origins are the stuff of myth, but for centuries this spectacular gem changes hands from one ruler to another in India, Persia, and Afghanistan. In 1850, the ancient stone is sent halfway around the world where it will play a pivotal role in the intertwined destinies of a boy-king of India and a young queen of England—a queen who claims the Mountain of Light and India itself for her own burgeoning empire, the most brilliant jewels in her imperial crown. The Mountain of Light is a magnificent story of loss and recovery, sweeping change and enduring truth, wrapped around the glowing heart of one of the world’s most famous diamonds.

From the French Abbey of St Wandrille to the abandoned and awesome Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia in Turkey, the celebrated travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor studies the rigorous contemplative lives of the monks and the timeless beauty of their monastic surroundings. In his occasional retreats, the peaceful solitude and the calm enchantment of the monasteries was passed on as a kind of 'supernatural windfall' which A Time to Keep Silence so effortlessly records.

Praise for Sun Yung Shin: Finalist for the Believer Poetry Award "[her] work reads like redactions, offering fragments to be explored, investigated and interrogated, making her reader equal partner in the creation of meaning."—Star Tribune Sun Yung Shin moves ideas—of identity (Korean, American, adoptee, mother, Catholic, Buddhist) and interest (mythology, science fiction, Sophocles)— around like building blocks, forming and reforming new constructions of what it means to be at home. What is a cyborg but a hybrid creature of excess? A thing that exceeds the sum of its parts. A thing that has extended its powers, enhanced, even superpowered.

Now in paperback, internationally bestselling author Indu Sundaresan presents a poignant collection of contemporary short stories about the challenges and consequences faced by women in Indian life today. Like Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Indu Sundaresan’s In the Convent of Little Flowers gives readers an eloquent and illuminating collection of stories about contemporary Indian life, exploring the cutting-edge issues that surround the clash between ancient tradition and modernity. In the collection’s title story, a young woman adopted by an American family in Seattle receives a letter from Sister Mary Theresa, a nun at the Convent of Little Flowers in Chennai, where she stayed as a child. Unbeknownst to the Indian woman, the nun is her biological mother’s sister. In another story, the grandmother of an Indian journalist begs her grandson to intervene and stop a young widow from being burned alive. And when a teenaged daughter bears a child out of wedlock, her entire family is thrown into turmoil. With their lush prose, vividly rendered settings, and complex characters, these and the other stories in this elegant collection bring readers into the experience of Indian women at home and abroad, where modernity offers them lives their grandmothers could never dream of, while at the same time taking away parts of their history. With a delicate touch, Indu Sundaresan weaves the pieces of the conflict together, presenting a nuanced and unforgettable tapestry.

Dregs of poverty, catwalk of opulence, Illusion of Splendor is an epic literary thriller taking the reader on an astonishing journey from the illusion to the heart of splendor. Characters diverse as a West African fisherman, an American college professor, and an Afghan heroin magnate interact in settings as vibrant as Nigeria and Monte-Carlo. The presentation is exotic; the scenes powerful. Driving the story is a turbulent powder-keg of vengeance. Illusion of Splendor begins with the fisherman pursuing terrorists who killed his sister and ends in a spectacular scene of redemption aboard a luxury yacht in Monaco. The story is timely, complex, sophisticated, and thought-provoking; the result of considerable historical research.

The stunning English translation of the International Man Booker Prize Finalist novel hailed as “a story of grace and endurance, not mere survival” (The New York Times Book Review). Winner of the Premio Campiello, short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award, and published to critical acclaim in fourteen languages, this “spellbinding” historical novel by one of Italy’s premier authors is now available in this luminous new translation (Booklist). In early 18th century Sicily, noblewoman Marianna Ucrìa is trapped in a world of silence after a terrible childhood trauma left her deaf and mute. Married off to a lecherous uncle, she struggles to educate and elevate herself against all convention—and find her true place in a world that sees her as little more than property. In language that conveys the keen vision and deep human insight possessed by her protagonist, Dacia Maraini captures the splendor and the corruption of Marianna’s world, as well as the strength of her unbreakable spirit, in “one of those rare, rich, deep, strange novels that create a world so fantastic and so real you want to start reading it again as soon as you come to the last page” (Newsday).