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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
title: Beneath A Marble Sky
author: John Shors
genre: historical fiction
first line: In the early days, when I was still an innocent girl, my father believed in perfection.
pages: 345
rated: 4 out of 5
Journey to dazzling seventeenth-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissions the building of the Taj Mahal as a testament to the marvel of their love. Princess Jahanara, their courageous daughter, recounts their mesmerizing tale, while sharing her own parallel tale of forbidden love with the celebrated architect of the Taj Mahal. This impressive novel sweeps readers away to a historical Hindustan brimming with action and intrigue in an era when, alongside the brutalities of war and oppression, architecture and the art of love and passion reached a pinnacle of perfection.
'A cup of chai cools my hands. A breeze gathers in the distance, unsettling tranquil waters. Though I am a hard woman with a barbed tongue, I'm still sentimental and prone to the welling of emotion. And breezes, especially those rising from beyong the Taj Mahal, can make tears bloom within me. For breezes remind me of kisses.
And kisses can be eternal.'
The story begins with Jahanara telling her two grandaughters the story of how she grew up in the Red Fort and of her parents undying love. She tells of how she lived inside the harem. Her father, Emporer Shah Jahan, had several wives, but only truly loved her mother, whom he calls Taj. In a time where women are treated as lesser beings than men, Jahanara is very close to her mother, who trains her in politics and educates her.
Soon enought Jahanara is arranged to marry Khondamir, a repulsive man twice her age. She is mistreated and is miserable. When Jahanara sees her family again, her mother is very pregnant and insists on Jahanara being there for the birth of the baby. Taj ends up dying shortly after giving birth. She makes Jahanara promise to take care of her father and she makes the Emporer promise he will build something beautiful for her and visit her tomb each year on the anniversary of her death.
Jahanara's father hires an architect, Isa, to build what comes to be the 'Taj Mahal'.
He instructs the architect to build 'the most beautiful structure in the world', because his wife was the most beautiful woman.
Isa and Jahanara come to fall in love, but it is dangerous for them to be together since she is married and they both can be killed if the wrong person finds out about thier relationship. Isa builds the monument for Jahanara, his love for her is his inspiration.
"No," he whispered, then sighed. "I can't share my love with you as I'm supposed to, the way a man shares such love with his wife. And so I build. I build to honor you, because this is the only way that I can love you, by sharing my love with the world. The first stone I laid had your name chiseled into its underside and the last-please grant me this wish Allah-shall carry both our names."
This story was wonderful! 'The first stone I laid had your name chiseled into its underside...' <- This is one of my favorite lines in a book now....how romantic.
I love it when a book can take you to another place and time, and you enjoy the characters and storyline.
'Our world blossomed. The first thing I noticed was that we were in a room, rather a box, of white marble. But the marble, despite its brilliance, did little to captivate me. What did were the hundreds, no thousands of flowers adorning the walls-delicate forms of lily, iris, tulip and narcissus. The corollas of these creations were gracefully tapered, while the petals and leaves were perfectly configured. Flowing vines connected the flowers.
I had never seen such beauty, not even in Allah's best gardens. For these flowers weren't of water and light, but of semi precious stones. They were inifintely more colorful than the rings of a rainbow, or the hues of a sunset.'
This book is full of drama, has just enough romance and the setting is both interesting & beautiful. I recommend this read.
'I suspected that my heart had an echo somewhere in the world, but I feared never discovering it.'
read more about the Taj Mahal here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal
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this has been part of the following reading challenges:
TBR
100+
historical fiction
triple 8
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