Author: Indu Sundaresan
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 490
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143031538
Description
The love story of Emperor Jahangir and Mehrunnisa, begun in The Twentieth Wife, continues in The Feast of Roses.
Mehrunnisa, the first woman Jahangir marries for love, is now Empress Nur Jahan. He loves her so deeply that he eventually transfers his powers of sovereignty to her. But power and wealth do not come easily to Mehrunnisa-she has to fight for them. She has a formidable rival in the imperial harem, Empress Jagat Gosini, who has plotted against Mehrunnisa from early on. Beyond the harem walls, she battles powerful ministers who consider her a mere woman who cannot have a voice in the outside world.
Mehrunnisa fits none of the established norms of womanhood in seventeenth-century India. She combats all her rivals by forming a junta of sorts with three men she can rely on-her father, her brother and Jahangir’s son Prince Khurram. She demonstrates great strength of character and cunning to get what she wants, sometimes at the cost of personal sorrow when she almost loses her daughter’s love. But she never loses the love of the man who bestows this power upon her-Emperor Jahangir.
Lush and romantic, The Feast of Roses is the tale of this power and love.
REVIEWS
Rich and realistic, A delicious story.
-The Seattle Times
Indu Sundaresan has written a fascinating novel about a fascinating time, and has brought it alive with characters that are at once human and legendary, that move with grace and panache across the brilliant stage she has reconstructed for them.
-Chitra Divakaruni, author of Mistress of Spices and Unknown Errors of Our Lives
Good, old-fashioned historical fiction. Full of jeweled beauties and crumbling rungs, the Twentieth Wife satisfied every craving for the pomp and mystery of India’s past.
-Chicago Tribune
A wonderful tale of love, hate and deceit, all woven into one magnificent Mughal tapestry.
-Indian Express, Chennai
Sundaresan is a gifted storyteller with an obvious passion for history.
-USA Today
The epic tale…is informative, convincing, and madly entertaining.
-Marilyn Yalom, author of A History of the wife and A History of the Breast