AMAH AND THE SILK-WINGED PIGEONS

Category Literature & Fiction
Format Paperback
Imprint Rupa
Price 295

ISBN: 978-93-89967-28-9
Pages: 288 pages
Date: 1st February 2021

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Winner, 2018 American Bookfest Best Book Awards (Historical Fiction)

Beautifully written and deeply researched, this story told through the eyes of a begum, a slave and a group of courtesans during 1857 is a must-read.

It is Lucknow of 1857. The forces of East India Company are about to unleash plunder on what was once the cultural capital of the kingdom of Awadh. But there is Amah, a member of the Rose Platoon, an elite corps of female military guards of African descent who have protected Lucknow’s royalty for generations. Her queen, Begum Hazrat Mahal, who is also of African descent, enlists Amah to be her eyes and ears and help fight the British takeover.

Synthesizing a wealth of meticulous historical research, and inspired by her own family’s history, Jocelyn Cullity’s Amah and the Silk-Winged Pigeons is centered on a group of strong, independent women who take action to defend their world and a way of life. The book plunges the reader into the complex drama and historical dilemmas faced by both ordinary and extraordinary Lakhnavis (people of Lucknow) at the time.

When the women decide to take on the English colonists who declare rule, what will be the ultimate price of the women’s loyalty to the royal family and to the place they’ve grown to love?

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Jocelyn Cullity’s English family lived in India for five generations. Her short stories and essays have been published in American, Canadian and Indian journals and anthologies; her award-winning documentary film about women and social change in China, Going to the Sea, aired on television and in festivals in Canada, the United States, and in Europe. Cullity has a PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University and is currently the Director of the BFA in Creative Writing programme at Truman State University. She lives in Columbia, Missouri, with her husband, the film scholar Prakash Younger, and their two daughters. She has also written The Envy of Paradise, published in 2019.