Kindle Edition
Ashley Shemain
Category:
Historical Fiction
Publisher: The Raj Books, L.L.C.
Type: Fiction
Pages: 452
Copyright: 2011
ISBN-13: 9781450284042
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Five boys of varying circumstances, in a boarding school during the British Raj in India, are drawn by fate into a brotherhood whose lives intertwine in a complex filigree of events that hurtles inexorably toward its unexpected conclusion.
The book uses the British Raj as its backdrop—the last of the great empires in world history—when the people of one small island strode the earth like giants, masters of all they surveyed. In their supreme confidence they assumed it was their god-given right that it should be so, and because of their audacity the world let them get away with it.
America was yet to rise from the rubble of a world war that would rock the planet and disrupt the balance of power. But that was still in the future and till then Britannia ruled the waves and the sun didn't set on the British Empire.
This story is about the unsung heroes of that era—the descendants of the British and other European colonizers who, through the two-hundred-year period of British rule in India, grew in numbers, made the sub-continent their home and became the Anglo Indian people. They were the bricks and mortar of the complex mechanism that was The Raj, running the basic infrastructure that made the country tick—the railways, police, post and telegraph, military, customs, and so on. This story is about them.
Synopsis: The book is about:
- A gifted boy, physically and intellectually blessed by nature, traumatized by events of his early youth—an unwilling witness to an incident evoking powerful human emotions he did not understand; abandoned as a child in a boarding school and left to grow up on his own for eight years, with little guidance through puberty, which predictably left big gaps in the structure of his persona.
- A dedicated priest, masterful in his role as teacher, tormented by questions of his faith and the sacrifice of an abandoned love.
- On the periphery, the school laundryman’s daughter, a wisp of a girl, who haunts the pages of the book with her exotic allure.
- Five boys of varying circumstances, each with their unique blend of character and magnetism, drawn by Fate into a brotherhood whose lives intertwine in a complex filigree of events that hurtles inexorably towards its unexpected conclusion.
Excerpt
Prologue
A shaft of brilliant sunlight streamed through the clouds and splashed against the white-robed figure standing on a rock, legs spread for balance, erect in posture, face lifted toward the sun, one arm extended to the side holding a massive staff about shoulder-high, the bottom end of which was firmly planted on a crevice in the rock for balance. The figure blazed brightly in the dark valley, dense with jungle but for the rocky clearing in which he stood. He posed still so long in this patient tableau that, from a distance, he looked like some ancient druid performing a pagan ritual. After several minutes he reached into his robe, pulled out an object, consulted it, and put it away. Then placing another object, which hung in a lanyard around his neck, into his mouth, he blew three long whistle blasts in three different directions, as though he were summoning the denizens of the jungle to emerge and worship at his feet. The shouts that erupted from either side of the valley corrected that notion and revealed that the blasts were the signal that action of some sort was now to commence.
The white-robed figure was Father Patrick, and, like that ancient druid, his life was indeed dedicated to his religious beliefs. He was a man content with his station, and his confidence showed in every action, every gesture he made. He took a seat on a nearby rock and reached down to massage the neck of his dark, chocolate-brown puppy, who frolicked at his feet. His contentment rose from the firm knowledge that his life was dedicated to, and spent in the pursuit of, a worthwhile goal. He loved what he was doing, knew he was good at it, and furthermore it was what God had called on him to do. The occasional doubts about his vocation that had begun to nag at him this year in weak moments he manfully crushed, refusing to let them get a foothold. Yes, he could still look someone in the eye and say his faith was strong.
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