Coming from Aleph’s Olio series, The book of Indian kings consists of stories and essays penned by celebrated authors. These stories and essays are a small chunk from the larger-than-life lives lived by a few Indian kings.

The book features 10 kings and authors – Salman Rushdie, Romila Thapar, Abraham Eraly, Kalki, Many S. Pillai, Khushwant Singh, Jadunath Sarkar, Rajmohan Gandhi, William Dalrymple, Vir Sanghvi and Namita Bhandare. While the language is comprehensible across all the write-ups, I found that some stories barely scratch the surface. Despite that the content is intriguing. I was looking forward to read Khushwant Singh, William Dalrymple, Salman Rushdie and Manu Pillai’s write-ups.

Before I get on to list my favourites from the lot, let me tell you that Rushdie’s writing impressed me. It was like butter melting on a hot pan, smooth and effortless. It was quite lyrical and convincing. So, watch out for that.

I loved reading –

  • The shelter of the world
  • Shivaji and his times
  • The last Moghul
  • Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of the Punjab
  • Madhavrao Scindia

To sum up, if history interests you then don’t miss out on this book. It has the bet that historical nonfiction writers have to offer their readers, all brought together in one book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publishers: Aleph book co
To buy the pls click https://amzn.to/2GkdeTL

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