The Asia Society Book Salon – The Glass Palace

This time we will read The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. The novel first published in 2000 for which Ghosh refused to accept the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Publishers description:

Rajkumar is only another boy, helping on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and all the Court into exile. He is rescued by the far-seeing Chinese merchant, and with him builds up a logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled. […] The story follows the fortunes – rubber estates in Malaya, businesses in Singapore, estates in Burma – which Rajkumar, with his Chinese, British and Burmese relations, friends and associates, builds up – from 1870 through the Second World War to the scattering of the extended family to New York and Thailand, London and Hong Kong in the post-war years.

Reviews: Read Pankaj Mishra's New York Times review here.

Recommended additional reading: Amitav Ghosh's personal blog.

This Event is for Asia Society Members only. How to become a member?

About Asia Society Book Salon

In the Asia Society Switzerland Book Salon we read and discuss fiction from or about Asia in an informal setting. We meet four times a year – in person in Zurich, if possible. For more information about upcoming meetings and books to read, please join the WhatsApp group or contact us at switzerland@asiasociety.org.