Synopses & Reviews
How does a story of India begin? Does it begin with the three great rivers—the Ganges, the Yamuna, the unseen Sarasvati pouring her dreaming waters down from the snowy mountains to the hot, dry plain?
This bewitching story within a story, set in magical India, explores the power of narrative to change the course of lives. Raka, the doomed young bride of a violent merchant, weaves a tale of rescue so vivid, it might just come true. She tells a servant boy the story of Farhad, a thief and unlikely hero, who must retrieve a famous jewel in order to save a kidnapped princess from a demon king. Farhads unforgettable companion on the journey is a wisecracking white tiger with an unnatural fear of water. It is their unusual and funny friendship, and the final sacrifice that they must make, that is the heart of this grand, beautiful novel about summoning the hero within.
F&P level: Z+
F&P genre: F
Synopsis
With all the mystery and magic that has made India the setting of some of literature's most beloved novels, this bewitching book follows the journey of a young thief named Farhad who musts retrieve a famous jewel in order to save a kidnapped princess from a demon king.
About the Author
Antonia Michaelis has lived and taught in India. She is the author of several award-winning books published in her native Germany, where she lives. Anthea Bell is the translator of Cornelia Funkes bestselling Inkheart books. Her work has won the Marsh Award for Childrens Literature in Translation, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translators Prize, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. She lives in Cambridge, Great Britain.