The City of Palaces

An orphaned girl.A cruel twist of fate.A spectacular adventure.Bengal 1930. Young Pom’s life changes forever when her family is wiped out in a devastating flood. She becomes a maidservant in a British boarding school where she discovers her gift for languages. Amidst the drudgery of her duties she finds unexpected friendship and experiences the stirrings of first love. However tragedy strikes and she is forced into hiding. Alone and desperate she is recruited into a brothel for English officers. She hopes this secretive decadent world will shield her from the demons of her past. But fate intervenes and our heroine is on the run again-to Calcutta the city of palaces where she finds herself caught up in the rising tide of Indian nationalism. Changing her name to Kamala she creates a new life for herself one that holds the promise of happiness and true love . . . until her past returns haunt her. Filled with romance danger intrigue and betrayal The City of Palaces is a lush sprawling saga about a feisty young heroine and her struggle for survival.‘Sujata masterfully weaves her heroine’s life with India’s struggle and fight for freedom and gives us an elegant piece of Indian history wrapped beautifully in Pom’s story’-Amulya Malladi author of The Mango Season. About the Author Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany and grew up mostly in St Paul Minnesota. She holds a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and started her working life as a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun. After leaving the newspaper she moved to Japan where she studied Japanese taught nglish and began writing her first novel The Salaryman's Wife. This novel became the first of many in the Rei Shimura mystery series which has won the Agatha and Macavity awards and been nominated for the Edgar Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark awards. Sujata's books have been published in more than eighteen countries. Currently she is based near Washington DC.