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The City of Love
Five hundred years ago, four people set out on individual journeys of discovery: In the quest for enlightenment and bags of gold, one travels to the end of the known world, another meddles with the fates of kings, a third loses all he had, and a fourth finds the City of Love.
Set in the half century after Vasco da Gamas historic landfall in India, this is the story of four intertwined lives: Fernando Almenara, a Castilian trader fleeing persecution in his native country; Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate driven by his desire for wealth and power; Chandu, a ShaivaTantric novice in search of salvation that continues to elude him; and Bajja, a tribal girl determinedly seeking spiritual freedom.
As the scene shifts from Chittagong, foremost port of the East, to Gaur, the capital of sixteenth-century Bengal, Rimi B. Chatterjee recreates an incredible era in our history. It is a time of turmoil, when European battleships mark out territories in Indian waters and native rulers clash swords with the mighty Mughals. And as new religions invade the space of ancient faiths, ordinary people are compelled to question all that they believe in.
Set in the half century after Vasco da Gamas historic landfall in India, this is the story of four intertwined lives: Fernando Almenara, a Castilian trader fleeing persecution in his native country; Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate driven by his desire for wealth and power; Chandu, a ShaivaTantric novice in search of salvation that continues to elude him; and Bajja, a tribal girl determinedly seeking spiritual freedom.
As the scene shifts from Chittagong, foremost port of the East, to Gaur, the capital of sixteenth-century Bengal, Rimi B. Chatterjee recreates an incredible era in our history. It is a time of turmoil, when European battleships mark out territories in Indian waters and native rulers clash swords with the mighty Mughals. And as new religions invade the space of ancient faiths, ordinary people are compelled to question all that they believe in.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
332 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2007
About the author
Rimi B. Chatterjee
12 books50 followersRimi B. Chatterjee is an author based in Kolkata (earlier Calcutta), India. She has published three novels and one academic history which won the SHARP deLong Prize for History of the Book in 2006, as well as a number of translations and short stories. She has been nominated twice for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award, once for fiction and once for translation. She teaches English at Jadavpur University.
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December 24, 2016
This is one of the book, that touches stranger tides and amalgams a throng of strangers in a bunch, bringing East, West and the middle in between, face to face with each other.
The year is 1510, half-a-century after Vasco da Gama made his first landfall in India, and plundered throught the kingdom of King Zamorin. Bengal is under the rule of the benevolent sultan Hussain Shah, where bhakti movement is spreading through the masses, yet the royal council is drowning in treachery. Four persons set out on individual journeys in the quest of enlightenment and bags of treasures. One travels to the end of the world, another meddles with the fates of kings, the third loses all he had and the fourth finds the ‘city of love’.
City of Love, tells the story of these four connected lives.
The protagonists in City of Love are Fernando Almenara, a Castilian trader fleeing persecution in his native land, Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate driven by his desire for wealth and power, Chandu, a Shaiva-Tantric novice searching for salvation that eludes him, and Bajja, a tribal girl seeking spiritual freedom in 16th century India.
It is Bajja who stumbles upon the ‘city of love’, a metaphysical kingdom around which the book revolves. It is a land that exists in the realms of human consciousness nurtured by love, all possible kinds of it.
The kingdom, or rather the concept of ‘Prem Nagar’ or ‘Ashqabad’ that the book dwells upon, is central to the unconventional mysticism preached by the sufi, the baul, the tantrik and the freewheeling European Christian mystics, who converged on India at that time, giving birth to a parallel religion that flourished outside the dogmatic confines of Islam, Hinduism and European Christianity.
The book ends with a burst of faith (bhakti) and love after spanning diverse religious terrains, including tantrik rites.
Fantasy books, science fiction and classics shapes this enticing epic fantasy book.
A must read!
The year is 1510, half-a-century after Vasco da Gama made his first landfall in India, and plundered throught the kingdom of King Zamorin. Bengal is under the rule of the benevolent sultan Hussain Shah, where bhakti movement is spreading through the masses, yet the royal council is drowning in treachery. Four persons set out on individual journeys in the quest of enlightenment and bags of treasures. One travels to the end of the world, another meddles with the fates of kings, the third loses all he had and the fourth finds the ‘city of love’.
City of Love, tells the story of these four connected lives.
The protagonists in City of Love are Fernando Almenara, a Castilian trader fleeing persecution in his native land, Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate driven by his desire for wealth and power, Chandu, a Shaiva-Tantric novice searching for salvation that eludes him, and Bajja, a tribal girl seeking spiritual freedom in 16th century India.
It is Bajja who stumbles upon the ‘city of love’, a metaphysical kingdom around which the book revolves. It is a land that exists in the realms of human consciousness nurtured by love, all possible kinds of it.
The kingdom, or rather the concept of ‘Prem Nagar’ or ‘Ashqabad’ that the book dwells upon, is central to the unconventional mysticism preached by the sufi, the baul, the tantrik and the freewheeling European Christian mystics, who converged on India at that time, giving birth to a parallel religion that flourished outside the dogmatic confines of Islam, Hinduism and European Christianity.
The book ends with a burst of faith (bhakti) and love after spanning diverse religious terrains, including tantrik rites.
Fantasy books, science fiction and classics shapes this enticing epic fantasy book.
A must read!
Displaying 1 of 1 review