A Singular Hostage - Softcover

Thalassa Ali

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747267723 ISBN 13: 9780747267720

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, 2002

Synopsis

Sent to India to find a husband, Mariana Givens is facing the prospect of returning to Sussex ignominiously single. But the vastness of India has been a revelation. And before she leaves, Mariana is to accompany the Governor-General's party on their journey upcountry to meet with the Punjab's ageing Maharajah. Little does she know it, but Marianna is being pulled into the fate of a child whose existence she isn't yet aware of. For 18-month-old Saboor is being held hostage by the capricious Maharajah, who views him as a talisman against encroaching decrepitude. But the Maharajah has no concept of a child's needs and, with his mother poisoned, Saboor is dying from neglect. According to Saboor's grandfather, the visionary Shaikh Waliullah, only the young woman from Sussex can save him.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

In a land of exotic splendor, a young Englishwoman finds herself guardian of an orphan child believed by a dying maharajah to be endowed with magical gifts. It is a role that will take her on a perilous journey into a kingdom's walled city to protect a child she doesn't know from a culture she doesn't understand...
A Singular Hostage
The year is 1838. Mariana Givens, a spirited young woman of twenty, has been sent to India to find a suitable husband. Traveling as a translator, she joins the entourage of Lord Auckland, the British Governor-General, as he journeys across India with an army ten thousand strong to meet the fabled Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Punjab.
Eager young officers compete for Mariana's favor, but it is with India that she falls in love: the baggage elephants tramping through country vast and wild; the scent of exotic foods at remote campsites; the enigmatic tutor who is her guide to native languages and ways. Lord Auckland must forge an alliance with Ranjit Singh that will deliver Afghanistan into British control, but as he negotiates his crucial treaty, Mariana is drawn into a perilous conspiracy surrounding the one-eyed Maharajah's baby hostage--a child of mystical repute named Saboor.

From the Back Cover:

"Sometimes lyrical and zippy ... this richly populated novel is notable for an odd combination of strengths: a compelling mysticism, a convincing historicity and a flare for slapstick comedy sending up both the Indian and British patriarchies."
--Publisher's Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0747267723
• ISBN 13: 9780747267720
• Binding: Paperback