Description
Fiction. Women's Studies. South Asian Studies. Finalist for the Foreword Indies Award for Historical Adult Fiction and Multicultural Adult Fiction. Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award's Grande Prize, Montaigne Medal and First Horizon Award. Received The Eric Hoffer Award Honourable Mention for General Fiction. Shortlisted for the Mary Sarton Award for Historical Fiction. One of 20 internationally recommended novels by the Walter Scott Prize.
Prior to 1857, the year it was engulfed by tragic historical conflict, the cosmopolitan city of Lucknow thrived on open-mindedness, great prosperity and pride, the city a magnet for musicians, poets, painters and chefs, drawing the finest cultural talent from other parts of India and the wider world. It proved too tempting a prize for the English East India Company not to attempt a takeover of the Kingdom of Awadh with its capital city, Lucknow. The devastation and disaster that came to be known as "the Red Year" was a turning point in the history of Indian colonialism. It gave birth to the self-conscious, anti-colonial nationalism that would define the next ninety years, eventually leading to Gandhi's nonviolent measures to oust the British from India once and for all. When the women decide to take on the English colonists who declare rule, what will be the ultimate price of the women's loyalty to the royal family and to the place they've grown to love?
Author Bio
Jocelyn Cullity's most recent work of historical fiction is THE ENVY OF PARADISE (Inanna Publications, 2019). Her award-winning historical novel AMAH AND THE SILK- WINGED PIGEONS (Inanna Publications, 2017) was included in the 2017 International "Recommended List of 20 Books" by The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, honoring books in the UK, Ireland, and Commonwealth countries. Cullity's short stories and essays have been published in Canadian, American, and Indian literary journals. Currently the Director of the BFA program in Creative Writing at Truman State University in Missouri, Jocelyn Cullity's English family lived in India for five generations. She was born in Australia, grew up north of Toronto, Canada, and has lived for periods of time in both India and England.
Author City: COLUMBIA, MO USA