The Glass Palace

Rajkumar is only a boy, helping out on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace in Mandalay, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and court into exile. Thus begins this novel which grasps the reach and fall of empires. The history of the twentieth century is told across three generations, spread over three interlinked parts of the British Empire: Burma, Malaya and India.