Author: Manreet Sodhi Someshwar
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Have you heard stories of the partition through
your family?
Lahore (The Partition Trilogy-1) by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is set
in the months leading up to Independence. In Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and
Vallabhbhai Patel are engaged in deliberations with British Viceroy Dickie
Mountbatten over the fate of the country. In Lahore, Sepoy Malik returns home
from the Great War hoping to win his sweetheart Tara's hand in marriage, only
to find divide-and-rule holding sway, and love, friendships, and familial bonds
being tested. Set in parallel threads across these two cities, Lahore is a
behind-the-scenes look into the negotiations and the political skullduggery
that gave India its freedom, the price for which was batwara. As the men make
the decisions and wield the swords, the women bear the brunt of the carnage
that tears through India in the sticky hot months of its cruelest summer ever. Backed
by astute research, The Partition Trilogy captures the frenzy of Indian
independence, the Partition, and the accession of the states, and takes readers
back to a time of great upheaval and churn.
The partition of India in 1947 is something that has affected a lot of families and even after 75 years, the wounds are still fresh in the minds of the people who experienced the horrors. This book explores the events that take place since the arrival of Lord Mountbatten up until a month after the independence day. I loved how using two parallel storylines in Delhi and Lahore, Manreet compares and contrasts the mindsets of the people in the two sets-one driving the partition, and the second being affected. The scenes are compelling and the thing that drives the story are the vivid and detailed descriptions, of both the scenes and the emotions. The language that she uses to build up the narrative, incorporating the local words and interweaving them with the main plot was something that did amaze me. It brought to the book a sense of ownership, a feeling that broke the walls and humanized the characters. As a masterful storyteller, her description of the pain and the sufferings of the people as they crossed the border in the second part of the book, helps you visualize and empathize with the events. Ending the book, the way it does, make you want to move on to the second book quickly.
The characters in the book are drawn from
History, at least some of them, and while the book is classified as fiction, I
am amazed by the level of research that must have gone into to create the people
we see in the story. Be it Nehruji, or Vallabh Bhai Patel, or for that matter
Lord Mountbatten and his family, each of them has an individualistic identity,
one that makes them stand apart and the attention to detail is uncanny with
cigarette brands and character quips being built up into the plot. Due
attention is given to each characters’ mindset and their discussions with
others and with themselves to set their characters.
Overall, a book I would recommend to anyone
who wants to read about the partition and loves to read historical fiction that
enthralls. The book scores a 4.81/5 for me.
This review is powered by the Blogchatter Review Program.
Get a copy of the book on Amazon here.
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