The Glass Palace

Originally published in 2000, The Glass Palace is Amitav Ghosh’s fourth novel and tells the story of a family across three generations. It is set in Burma, Malaya, and India during a turbulent period in the region’s history. The book opens in 1885. In Mandalay, Burma, the British army begins to descend on the city and dethrone the royal family. An 11-year-old boy named Rajkumar is the only one who recognizes the thundering sound of the British cannon for what it is. He works at a food stall with a woman named Ma Cho, arriving in Mandalay after his family fled a sickness that spread through their village in India.

A dispute over timber has angered the British, and despite King Thebaw’s best efforts, the local forces are quickly defeated. Queen Supayalat is shown to be the mastermind of Thebaw’s reign. She has ruthlessly eliminated his rivals: nearly eighty men from the royal bloodline. Despite her violent efforts, she and the king have only held power for seven years. When the palace is sacked, the humiliated king and his entourage are sent to India by the British.

During the looting, Rajkumar gets swept along with the crowd.