The Palace of Illusions
A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat—told from the point of view of an amazing woman.Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary...
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A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat—told from the point of view of an amazing woman.Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale. The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. Panchaali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780385515993 (0385515995)
Publish date: February 12th 2008
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages no: 360
Edition language: English
Fun, accessible retelling of an epic I'm not familiar with - it's given me a strong starting point; from what I've seen it appears she's quite faithful to the original, only reassessing character motivations. The narrator has a strong voice and the author does a good job making character decisions s...
3.5 StarsI have read a lot of mythology. I know the stories of the Celtic tribes, the Germanic people who would conquer them, the Romans l the Greeks, and even of many of the nation's who inhabited North America. I am less familiar with the mythologies of the East, particularly India. Perhaps it was...
I don't know why I wasted my time reading this book which was neither true nor was it entertaining. This was more like a fan fiction of Draupadi and Karna and nothing else. No idea what the author wanted to make us feel here by telling Mahabharata from Draupadi's point of view. Was she trying to por...
I'd give it six stars if I could.Peak reading experiences come all too seldom in life. I think one knows it's a peak when it's almost too painful to endure that the book is ending, but almost too painful to endure to put it down and turn out the light. Then the book comes to you in your dreams, the ...
I enjoyed this book but something "bothered" me about it. Divakaruni writes well and it's well paced but it wasn't until the final pages that I realized why I was dissatisfied with it.It's a fundamental disagreement with the philosophy underlying the Mahabharat, which was articulated by Krishna to D...
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