The Palace of Illusions

 

Getting back to reading the RA Favorite books, it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, is an ancient historical tale that the author has re-told through the eyes of the heroine.  The original story rooted in Indian tradition, taken from Sanskrit, known as the Mahabharata, a tale of the Kurukshetra War and features the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes.  In Divakaruni’s version, she tells the story from the voice of the King’s daughter, Panchaali, who fights historical notions of women, and creates her own legacy as a ruler.  She is told that she will live the prophecy of fighting in the world battle, but early in her life she initially has to fight tradition as a female watching her only brother be trained as a future warrior while she studies and does “womanly” type things. Panchaali decides to have her future read by a “fortune-teller” who describes a life she couldn’t imagine, fighting battles and marrying five men (who end up being brothers, their mother requires she marries them all)…. Guess what happens… ask for the future, and you never know what will happen.  She avenges the life her father would never let her lead and builds the mansion, the palace of illusions, where she becomes the queen.  One of her husband’s gambles the palace and all of their earthly possessions away and Panchaali and the family are driven from their home into the forest hiding in exile.  Finally at the end of being in hiding they fight the war of wars, pitting all of the Indian Kings in battle against one another.  Who will win?  The story does have some level of in depth detail, so the reader needs to pay attention, or else miss it.  It captures ancient times and the flight of the female leader is before it’s time.  After reading the book I tweeted to the author, who answered me back with a “thank you” tweet.  Maybe an invite for an RA book club read this fall?  Good epic story.