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The Glass Palace

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 7,595 ratings · 659 reviews

Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the B...more

Paperback, 552 pages

Published 2001 by HarperCollins (first published 2000)

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Nov 27, 2010 Jeanette rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Historical fiction fans

Shelves: all-fiction, asia, historical-fiction, indian-subcontinent-and-surrounding, five-star-fiction

Yes. This is why I read historical fiction.

Amitav Ghosh devoted five years of his life to the travel, research, and writing required to tell this story. It follows the mingled fates of three families and three countries--Burma, India, and Malaya, from 1885 through the mid-1990s. The story begins with the British takeover of the kingdom of Burma as its king and queen are exiled to a remote compound in India. Through the lives of the orphan Rajkumar, his mentor Saya John, the girl Dolly, and her...more

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May 19, 2011 Praj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During my pre-vegetarian days, I used to find solace in a warm, juicy scrumptious steak n’ cheese sandwich washed down by a chilled Heineken. Especially, if the gooey cheese was a blend of Munster, Monterey jack and yellow cheddar; the bread not too soggy but aptly moisten by the beef gravy. It is pure bliss. On the other hand, a classier version for $150 is layered with buttered lobsters, black truffles and caviar. Now, why would someone mess up such a meticulous appetizing combination? Stop! D...more During my pre-vegetarian days, I used to find solace in a warm, juicy scrumptious steak n’ cheese sandwich washed down by a chilled Heineken. Especially, if the gooey cheese was a blend of Munster, Monterey jack and yellow cheddar; the bread not too soggy but aptly moisten by the beef gravy. It is pure bliss. On the other hand, a classier version for $150 is layered with buttered lobsters, black truffles and caviar. Now, why would someone mess up such a meticulous appetizing combination? Stop! Do not ruin the sandwich. Sometimes finding equilibrium with the culinary fest becomes essential to restrict the malfunction of the taste buds. What a fucking nincompoop you would say, comparing an internationally acclaimed novel to a mere sandwich. Hey! I am somehow craving for meat now and couldn’t find a better way to evaluate this book. I am not going to air kiss and bestow courteous admiring comments as to how the book merges a fascinating piece of history with a gratifying story. The cynical bitch that I am, I want to know if it was worth my money.

Encyclopedia! Encyclopedia! That is the golden word here. C’mon Ghosh, you know better that sometimes too much chronological information in a fiction novel can be irksome and skepticism may prevail over the respective purchase. There were times, many times throughout the narration, I wished to have simply bought a non-fiction Burmese history book and could have used the remaining to purchase some beer. Alcohol did prove to be a crucial company during some parts of my reading. One thing you should be sure of, Ghosh loves history and with his books one can gain knowledge of varied historical eras. For all the history buffs out there, it’s treat fellas!!! Just like his in depth elucidations on the opium wars in Sea of Poppies, Ghosh spans put this plot over a century ranging from the fall of Mandalay, the World wars(I&II), the Japanese invasion of Malay, the Indian independence and finally the modern times with a mention of Aung San Suu Kyi.Phew!!! It is not that bad. The transformation of landscapes and the changes in fortune and agricultural economies turn out to be quite mesmerizing. The exile of King Thibaw and the aftermath of his family life in the western coastal region of India was job well done.As for the creative writing part of it, the lives and families of Rajkumar and Dolly over three generations were loosely scripted and eventually got a bit unexciting. At times there is hurriedness in the author’s writing which can be evidently seen in the abrupt endings of some chapters. It seems like Ghosh, at some point must have been overwhelmed with his subjective research and could not find symmetry between reality and fantasy. Just like the fancy steak sandwich; all those flavors of buttered crustacean, meat, cheese, truffles and maybe salmon roe, it a medley of disaster. It is not worth to separate the ingredients and if eaten in it entirety one cannot taste a damn thing.

Lastly, I like to thank the makers of Heineken for not only making the vegetarians a happy bunch of people, but ,also for a superb fermentation process without which there would not be any chilled beer to be pleasured on a blistering day and help my reading. As for Ghosh, darling, it would be an immense delight to meet you in person; as far as the books goes I would delightfully adore them only through the display windows.
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May 17, 2013 CadyCan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dummer-book-club

Borrowed from Jane, Dummer Book Club read.

This book took ages to read (approx 2months), largely due to move etc. but also because there was nothing in it that grabbed me & compelled me to read on. It's an easy book to put down & I can understand why some people in Dummer book club gave up on it. The names are hard to follow for two reasons: 1. they're foreign to me 2. There are many many characters.

Thoughts on book changed as I read it. Started off thinking it's going to be a gripping hi...more Borrowed from Jane, Dummer Book Club read.

This book took ages to read (approx 2months), largely due to move etc. but also because there was nothing in it that grabbed me & compelled me to read on. It's an easy book to put down & I can understand why some people in Dummer book club gave up on it. The names are hard to follow for two reasons: 1. they're foreign to me 2. There are many many characters.

Thoughts on book changed as I read it. Started off thinking it's going to be a gripping historical novel that will tell me much of places on my travel list. Then began to think it was just a looooong drawn out, elaborate love story telling the tale of various couples starting with the main couple Rajkumar & Dolly then followed by the love stories of their children etc. I do normally enjoy books that tell of historical events in a story because I usually learn something & this was true here too except I am told by those who know more of this region's history that much of it is vastly inaccurate, although descriptions of places apparently do the reality justice. Of course this too could just be a result of the historical slant taught in England. As such I've chosen to learn, instead, the general tale told by the historical back drop, especially as in reading the 'Author's notes' at the end, it is made clear the story was put together from many tales heard by the author from people who lived through some of the atrocities.

Everyone has a story to tell and I love to hear from people about their experiences, admittedly, preferably first hand over a cuppa. In a way this book was that, it just needed to be written in a way that kept one going, otherwise I appreciate the highs, lows, trials, tribulations & experiences these people's endured and respect their versions of remembered events, as indeed such tumult can only ever be intensely subjective. The author tries to give multiple view points and commentaries on the socio-political state of places in the book but in his attempt to show all sides fails to impart any sense of conviction to the reader. I didn't feel outraged or goaded into a sense of action, justice or injustice by the end of it. I just felt sad.

This book should have been written as three separate books. The first covering Rajkumar & Dolly's story, but leaving it on a cliff hangar, the second telling the middle part of the book (beginnings of the war story), again leaving on a cliff hangar and the third tying up all the loose ends. Amitox Gosh's main talent is imagery and 2/3rds through the book it appears he realised that the book was dragging on a big and so less and less imagery and detail was put in, skimming over things that would have carried more emotional weight had they been afforded the same level of detail as the first half had. Perhaps its more fair to say the book was poorly edited as I'd have thought its the editor who will guide the author on things such as detail, pace, splitting the book, etc.(less)

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Nov 02, 2012 aswin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Ghosh weaves the lives of characters spanning three generations as they try to rearrange their personal lives around a world that is quite beyond their control. The novel is set mostly in 19th and 20th century Burma and India (US and other parts of South East Asia also play roles), but you could read through its characters the many conflicting tugs of the colonial condition in general. The novel starts out as a slow read but as the second generation of characters start to grow up and the pace of...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Mommalibrarian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, asian-african-indian

This book is epic in length and covers three generations of Indians in the countries of Malaya and Burma (Myanmar) from 1885 until the end of the twentieth century. This is a very large scope and it is covered by disconnected chapters that are almost standalone essays. A few are strongly written - the torn loyalties of the Indian soldier when faced with continuing to serve a British master as part of the empire or switching to the Japanese side to drive the British out. Some of the essay / chapt...more

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Dec 26, 2007 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: novels, historical-fiction

The first person I recommended this book to was an English professor, who said she was immediately "transfixed." Undoubtedly Amitav Ghosh's masterpiece (his other novels do not even compare), The Glass Palace is an epic that takes place over three generations of a multi-ethnic and multi-class families in Southeast Asia. Ghosh sets the novel in the Bengal region, which straddles modern-day borders of India, Bangladesh, Burma, and Malaysia, demonstrating how the porous nature of these cultures mak...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all Ghosh fans

Shelves: hf-india, bookmooch, burma, read-2011, favorites

Page 107:
May I remind Your Highness that while Alexander the GReat spent no more than a few months in the steppes of Central Asia, the satrapies he founded persisted for centuries afterward) Britain's Empire is, by contrast, already more than a century old, and you may be certain, Your Highness, that its influence will persist for centuries more to come.

Page 292
There were quotations from Mahatma Gandhi and a passage that said: "Why should India, in the name of freedom, come to the defence of thi...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Elise Hamilton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a long but very good book. It spans the time from 1885 through the mid-1990's, and takes place in Burma, Malaysia, and India. Though it's definitely a novel, there are some historical figures that are treated as characters in the book, and historical events told by Ghosh but learned by his research and access to journals and face-to-face first-person accounts. It met my requirements for a good book: very well written, beautiful prose, well-defined characters who's inner thoughts we're g...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Covering the period of time between the mid-19th century to the present, set mostly in Burma, The Glass Palace is a story of two Indian/Burmese families over a period of generations during times of vast political and social changes in Burma. It is a fascinating account of the large Indian migration to Burma in the 19th and early 20th centuries, first to harvest teak, then to work the rubber plantations. The Indians imported into Burma--and � imported� is a euphemism for economic slavery--were mo...more Covering the period of time between the mid-19th century to the present, set mostly in Burma, The Glass Palace is a story of two Indian/Burmese families over a period of generations during times of vast political and social changes in Burma. It is a fascinating account of the large Indian migration to Burma in the 19th and early 20th centuries, first to harvest teak, then to work the rubber plantations. The Indians imported into Burma--and � imported� is a euphemism for economic slavery--were mostly exploited by other Indians, who were able to become wealthy by contracting to supply labor for the teak and rubber plantations mostly (but not entirely) owned by foreigners, especially the English. [return][return] Rajkumar Raha enters Burma in the late 19th century as an illiterate worker. He is present during the British invasion of Burma in 1885, when teh English deposed the Burmese royal family, ousting them from the Glass Palace, and forcing them into exile in India. Rajkumar sees and is immediately obsessed by Dolly, a young Burmese attendant of the Queen; many years later as a wealthy man, he pursues Dolly into India and persuades her to marry him and return to Burma.[return][return]The story line follows Rajkumar and his family, along with those of his mentor Saya John and his family. Their fates follow that of Burma and India, as the rising movement for Indian independence, one of whose factions is led by Gandhi, affects the politics of Burma as well, with its large Indian laboring class.[return][return]One of the best sections of the book covers the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War II. It is impossible not to compare it with J.G. Farrell� s The Singapore Grip, which covers the exact same event, since it led to the invasion and fall of Singapore. Farrell, an Irishman who had no love for the British colonial policies in any part of the Empire, and Ghosh, writing from the Indian point of view, tell almost exactly the same story, differing only in the details of separate events in Burma and Malaya. Of the two, Ghosh is the more forgiving of British military blunders and failures, simply because his point of view is that of the Indians caught up in the invasion; Farrell is far more scathing, given his British protagonists.[return][return]The best way I can describe Ghosh� s writining is that is is � old fashioned,� far more formal than that of most contemporary Indian writers. This serves very, very well for the story up until the present day, including the military coup that took over Myanmar (Burma). Perhaps because Ghosh was not that invested in the modern story, the tale loses momentum and impact at the end. However, the contemporary section is not that long--it's almost an epilogue-- and should not deter anyone from reading what is a very fine historical novel. Highly recommended.(less)

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Mar 29, 2013 Sayantan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The history is spot on, the characters and plot less so. The author seems to have set himself a target of including all significant historical events in colonial Burma. The good that came from it is that he researched it very well and painted a convincing picture of events unfolding from the view point of an average citizen unable to resist the sweep of history. But unfortunately, the ways the protagonists land up bang in the middle of history in the making, seems a little contrived. As I said b...more

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Mar 19, 2013 H R rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Towards the end of the book I felt as if a giant invisible hand had plucked me up and started shaking me. I couldn't identify my feelings, I only knew that I was overwhelmed. Perhaps what I felt is close to what Zadie Smith described as 'joy' in a recent essay*. Whatever it was, I finished the novel profoundly moved and grateful for a novelist like Amitav Ghosh.

The Glass Palace is an epic and it flies by very quickly. It is a generational story of three families who intersect across three countr...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, burma-fiction

This pageant of history reminds me of James Michener's sagas. It traces over 100 years spanning colonialism, the end of the Burmese monarchy, two wars and the ultimate implantation of a police state in Burma through the fictional stories of people bound together by business, marriage and friendship.

There are several protagonists, each involved in and affected by the events of their respective times. Through them, Ghosh draws a picture that helps readers like me, who have little knowledge of this...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Su_ghosh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Magnificent. There’s no other word for it. It’s a well-researched book and thoroughly enjoying. Spanning a period of about sixty years, it’s a tale about three generations of a family and similar in some respects to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Human emotions make the novel engaging. Love, betrayal, treachery, racism, friendship & sacrifice pervade the unfolding of events. Romance mingles with vivid description of a war as the principal characters move from Rangoon...more Magnificent. There’s no other word for it. It’s a well-researched book and thoroughly enjoying. Spanning a period of about sixty years, it’s a tale about three generations of a family and similar in some respects to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Human emotions make the novel engaging. Love, betrayal, treachery, racism, friendship & sacrifice pervade the unfolding of events. Romance mingles with vivid description of a war as the principal characters move from Rangoon and Mandalay in Burma to Malaya, and from Ratnagiri, Calcutta and Madras in India to the United States.

It’s a story about an Indian man, RajKumar Raha who lands up in Burma in a state of penury owing to a shipwreck. From his humble beginning as a sailor boy, he rises to become an extremely affluent influential timber trader in Burma. This 550 page fictional work with Burmese history woven into the narrative chronciles his family’s experiences, their ups and downs, the hatred that exist in Burma for Indo-Burmese family (Rajkumar marries a Burmese lady Dolly ) providing us in between with a wealth of information about Burma, the timber trade, killer diseases like antharax which attack and kill elephants etcetera without becoming dry and boring.

Reading through the novel one is convinced about the tremendous research the writer must have done for this work while dealing with a subject that won’t come naturally to any writer. A Bengali who grew up in various places, Amitav Ghosh writes about Burmese life with an authority and a flair that a good Burmese writer would have been proud of. His description is awesome and he’s as precise about military life as he is when he is handling erotic sequences or the make of a foreign car. Amitav’s prose is captivating. Below are just two beautiful extracts from the book.

“Everything he owned was in that place, all that he ever worked for; a lifetime’s accumulation of labour stored as a single cache of wood. He thought of the elephants and the bombs falling around them; the flames leaping from a well-stacked wood; the explosions, the trumpeting. It was he who has concentrated all his holdings in this one place — that too was part of the plan — and now the bombs have claimed it all. But it didn’t matter; nothing mattered so long as Neel was unharmed. The rest were just things, possessions. But Neel ….. ”

The second extract.

“They came across a lady one day, dressed in a beautiful silk sari, a peacock-green Kanjeevaram. She looked to be from a wealthy family but she too had run out of food. She was trying to bargain with a group of people who were sitting by a fire. Suddenly she began to undress and when she’d stripped off her sari they saw she had others on underneath, beautiful, rich silks, worth hundreds of rupees. She offered up one of these, hoping to exchange it for a handful of food. But no one had any use for it; they asked instead for kindling and wood. They saw her arguing vainly with them — and then perhaps recognising finally the worthlessness of her treasured possession, she rolled he sari into a ball and put in on the fire; the silk burnt with a crackling sound, sending out leaping flames.”

Flashback techniques has been used in several places. Scenes from Burmese rebellion are a recurring motif. These images are terribly disturbing and continues to haunt and those who’ve seen John Boorman’s hard-hitting film Beyond Rangoon on the atrocities by Burmese military Govt. on its citizens will be convinced that this resourceful land, called the Golden Land, rich in precious stones, rubber among other items is/was truly in the grip of anarchy for a long time. In the last pages, havoc caused by a Japanese invasion in Burma and its effect on the Army officers and the people have been penned quite forcefully. It’s undoubtedly one of the best books I have read in recent times.(less)

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Oct 09, 2012 Ellen Schecter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm on an Amatav Ghosh kick. This novel precedes Sea of Poppies, is not nearly as well-written, even though the sweep of
history and the cast of characters is as interesting and involving. The book begins in Burma, in the 1880's, and embraces
the massive changes sweeping that country and India, up almost until today's freeing of Aung San Sui Kyi. Ghosh wraps
his arms around a massive amount of history and brings it to life, but not with the same skill he shows later in the
Sea of Poppies trilogy.

I s...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Opening in Burma in 1885 during the reign of the last monarch, King Thebaw and Queen Supayalat, we are introduced to Rajkumar an orphan from Indian who has fled to Burma as a means of survivial, and Dolly who is living at the Palace and caring for the young princesses. The Birttish Empire has set its sites on the resources of Burma and overthrows the King and Queen, sending them into exile. As the royal family is being taken out of Burma Rajkumar is smitten with young Dolly and slips her some fo...more Opening in Burma in 1885 during the reign of the last monarch, King Thebaw and Queen Supayalat, we are introduced to Rajkumar an orphan from Indian who has fled to Burma as a means of survivial, and Dolly who is living at the Palace and caring for the young princesses. The Birttish Empire has set its sites on the resources of Burma and overthrows the King and Queen, sending them into exile. As the royal family is being taken out of Burma Rajkumar is smitten with young Dolly and slips her some food for her trip. Rajkumar is taken in by Saya John and mentored in the ways of business. Rajkumar takes to heart the lessons of Saya John and succeeds in a rags to riches story that was not uncommon in Burmese history in the early 20th centrury. During Dolly's 20-year exile Dolly is cut off from her native land, catches a glimpse of love that is snatched away, and eventually befirends Uma the wife of one of their "caregivers". Rajkumar seeks Dolly out after twenty-three years in exile. With the help of Uma he convinces her to marry him and return to Burma. Afterwards, the lives of these families (Rajkumar, Dolly, Uma, and Saya John) are inextricably tied together. Through multiple generations we see the history of Burma, and India to some degree, unfold through 1996. During this time Burma goes from a "Golden Land" to a subject within the Brittish Empire, to an occupied Japanese territory, to an independent democracy, to the Burma (Myanmar) we saw in the 2008 cyclone aftermath. The book relates Burma's cultrue, religions (Hindu, Christianity, Hindu, and Muslim to a lesser degree), relations with India, and socio-economic issues. The book is also a social commentary with a message that is timeless. Some of my favorite passages:

" The Queen greeted them with her proud, thin-lipped smile. Yes, look around you, look at how we live. Yes, we who ruled the richest land in Asia are now reduced to this. This is what they have done to us, this is what they will do to all of Burma. They took our kingdom, promising roads and railways and ports, but mark my words, this is how it will end. In a few decades the wealth will be gone-all the gems, the timer and the oil-and then they will eave. In our golden Burma, where no one ever went hungry and one was too poor to write an dread, all that will remain is destitution and ignorance, famine and despair. We were the first to be imprisoned in the name of their progress; millions more will follow." (pg 76)

"that while misrule an dtyranny must be resisted, so too must politics itself...that it cannot be allowed to cannibalize all of life, all of existence. To me this is the most terrible indiginity of our conidtion - nut just in Burma but in many other places too...that politics has invaded everything, spared nothing...religion, art, family...it has taken over everything...there is no escape from it...and yet what could be more trivial in the end?" (pg 467)

It is very humbling to read about the rich history of places like Burma and see its current condition.

My one caution: for much of the book there is a fairy tale quality to the story. Either nothing bad happens when you just know what the result of a situation should be or if a tragedy occurs it is glossed over and Ghoush moves on. This can frustrating to some readers. Go into knowing this is purposefully done and contrasts with events later in the book.

The only negative I have is that I never got really connected to the characters. For me personally, that is important. This is the only reason I'm not rating it a 5. (less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Set in Burma, India and Malaya in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this epic story of a three generations bound by ties of family, business and friendship begins in 1885 in Mandalay with the overthrow of the last Burmese king by the British and ends in 1996 with an address by the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi from the house to which the military government has confined her. In between it takes in the fall of Chiang Kai-shek in China, the overthrow of Singapore by the Japa...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, historical-fiction

loved Ghosh's first two Ibis trilogy books, and wanted to read another book of his while waiting for the third in that series to come out. Absolutely loved this ingenious work of historical fiction, published in 2000. Remarkably similar style as the Ibis books - multiple storytellers with different voices and accents & diverse cultural backgrounds, varied settings in multiple countries (and in this case, generations/time periods), evidence of intensive research on historical settings (in thi...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Palmyrah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amitav Ghosh has been a favourite of mine ever since I picked up The Calcutta Chromosome in a Singapore bookshop many years ago. This is the first book of his that has disappointed me.

It begins well, with the story of two unrelated orphans who survive the British invasion of Burma and the deposition of King Thebaw. One is a servant-girl at the royal court; the other is a Bengali street boy. Many years later, in India, they marry. The first part of the story, which tells of their adventures and e...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My awareness of the conflict in Burma could not prepare me for this book, it was very powerful. It is about Burma and India, war and coming of age, politics, love, royalty, exile, jungles, the teak business, love: an epic of a place and time. I work with Burmese refugees who have been displaced in Thai and Malyasian refugee camps for their whole lives, whose parents were expelled from their countey in the 80's. I also work with Karen Burmese refugees which are ethnically different than the Burma...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Carol in Bothell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved "Sea of Poppies," which I found on the paperback picks shelf at the library. It's always so exciting to read a novel by a new author and really enjoy it. Then you're on the lookout for more of this author's work and it's like a treasure hunt (aided a great deal by the "reserve" function of my library's website...). Anyway, I was in a bookstore recently and was seriously considering buying my own copy of "Sea of Poppies" but decided to buy "The Glass Palace" instead. "The Glass Palace" in...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Appu Shaji rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Glass Palace is indeed history masqueraded as finely crafted fiction, and politics discussed is ever relevant. At its core, the Glass Palace is the story of ordinary people's life being taken over by politics and drowning them into insignificance.

What I found mostly remarkable is how the build-up of each character is paced, with often illustrious and heavy detailing during the first and middle part of their stories, however their exit from the book is mostly tapered, and seems sometimes even...more

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Sep 10, 2009 jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What exactly can one say about “The Glass Palace?” Amitav Ghosh, with his lyrical prose, intricate characters, and extraordinary gift for research, never ceases to amaze. How many other writers could offer a work of such sweep -- following an extended family’s triumphs and travails through 115 years of Burmese history – enwrapping the reader in each moment and personality so completely that you find yourself holding your breath?

If you consider yourself reasonably well educated and have only thou...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Helynne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I lived in Burma and traveled to Thailand as a young child, so I picked up this novel, hoping it would bring back some nostalgic memories of Burma (now Myanmar), its people and culture. It certainly did. This book is rich with ethnic and cultural descriptions such as the teak forests where elephants work along with humans to fell and transport the beautiful wood that will be made into furniture and artifacts. The story begins during the British colonial period in 1885, and follows several gener...more

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Aug 19, 2009 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Glass Palace moved quickly at the beginning, slowed in the middle, and moved quickly again at the end. It was not a bad read.

It was a good read in that some of the characters were really interesting and moving. Also in that it told some history very well. It went from the British colonization to WWII, and with the last three characters, even beyond to modern times. Ghosh explained events and dealings well and they were mostly things I was not aware of before.

I could have used a diagram of a...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Kaustav Ganguly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The events of World War spurned many writers to base their tales around the disastrous war. This book although partly based on the World War events comes across as a refreshing read. Romanticism intertwined brilliantly with history, this novel describes the family of the protagonist Rajkumar.
The story begins in Mandalay in the kingdom of King Thibaw and his Queen. When the English invasion forces Rajkumar to flee to India, he enters the lumber business. But his heart is set on the Princess' atte...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Ritwik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Historical fiction is my thing and Amitav Ghosh is a master of this genre! I've now read his Ibis Trilogy books (3rd book to be out soon I hope) and this; each book provides you with some incredible historical back drops and it explores a different Indian diaspora in such beautiful, rich detail that I often find myself perceiving Ghosh's world as reality and my own a dream.

I particularly enjoyed this book since, having grown up in Singapore, I'm familiar and very fond of the whole South East Asi...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Amber rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this on a recommendation from someone because the author is bangladeshi. It gives some of the history of India/Britain/burma/malaysia over the course of 3 generations of families. It follows the british ousting of the Burmese royalty and forced exile in India and also a young boy who works on the rivers in southeast asia doing odd jobs. Their families become intertwined and are involved in teak harvesting, rubber plantations and the indian separatist movements.
Very interesting, as I don'...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, game-changer, musts, read-and-be-smarter

The Glass Palace is an astonishing book of great humility and grace. It is perhaps one of the best discourses on colonialism that I have ever read. Ghosh taught for a year in the same place I was teaching and I just...was a fool. He isn't just a writer, he is uncommonly gifted. This novel was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize and Ghosh withdrew it for reasons obvious to everyone but, apparently, the prize committee. His open letter can be viewed here: http://www.ezipangu.org/english/conte...

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Jan 21, 2013 Satarupa Chakraborty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I will begin by simply stating that this is a magnificent little book. Like a lot of what others have said here, I agree that Ghosh's technical skills as a writer leave a lot to be desired in this book, but despite that, the powerful emotions that events in this book invoke,more than make up for that little drawback.
The glass palace is , essentially, the story of one individual. Rajkumar. He starts out as an orphan, gets drifted between countries like a solitary weed in a flowing river. We see h...more

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Nov 17, 2010 Bunga Mawar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: it-s-mine, translated-into-indonesian, fiction

Salah satu buku yang datang dalam kehidupan saya di saat yang tepat.

Buku terbitan tahun 2008 ini sudah saya miliki awal Oktober, setelah membelinya dari kotak obralan Mizan di Indonesia Book Fair, namun masih terbungkus plastik rapi. Hingga tanggal 9 lalu, saya di kamar kos bengong nggak punya bacaan baru. Walhasil, bungkus plastik buku ini pun terobek, dan isinya terbaca sedikit demi sedikit. Dan saya sempat terpana sesaat (ga lama2, kalo kelamaan jadi ketiduran).

Pas banget. November ini mater...more

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About Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh is one of India's best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances, The Hungry Tide. His most recent novel, Sea of Poppies, is the first volume of the Ibis Trilogy.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexan...more

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The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery

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Quotes from The Glass Palace

“What would it be like if I had something to defend - a home, a country, a family - and I found myself attacked by these ghostly men, these trusting boys? How do you fight an enemy who fights with neither enmity nor anger but in submission to orders from superiors, without protest and without conscience?” — 18 people liked it

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