Around India In 80 Trains

Amitav Ghosh’s historical novel begins as King Thebaw and the Burmese royal family are ousted by the British from their palace in Mandalay and sent to live out the rest of their lives in Ratnagiri on the Konkan Coast of India. As the royal family is being escorted by the British to the boat that will take them to India, Rajkumar, a young Indian boy, spots delicate Dolly, a loyal maid to the fierce and demanding queen, and his life changes. Determined to find Dolly again one day, the hungry and determined Rajkumar earns his way to India to track down the beautiful girl.

Ghosh’s story follows the lives of three generations affected by war, who eventually start to question for whom they are really fighting and for whose cause. It’s a story that demands patience and close attention, but it’s a beautiful, densely researched narration of a shocking history of scattered families, cross-cultural marriages, scandal and split loyalties, all blended with a series of romantic interludes that make Ghosh’s hunk of a novel an epic and thoroughly satisfying read.

And if you take the Konkan railway from Madgaon to Ratnagiri, you can take an auto ten minutes out of the station to visit King Thebaw’s palace, the remains of which are sparse but which overlook the seas that Thebaw guarded from his balcony until the day he died.