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The Glass Palace
- Narrated by: Ranjit Madgavkar
- Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins
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The Glass Palace
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Summary
'An absorbing story of a world in transition’ JM Coetzee
'A Doctor Zhivago for the Far East' The Independent
Rajkumar is only another boy, helping on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and all the Court into exile. He is rescued by the far-seeing Chinese merchant, and with him builds up a logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled.
The story follows the fortunes – rubber estates in Malaya, businesses in Singapore, estates in Burma – which Rajkumar, with his Chinese, British and Burmese relations, friends and associates, builds up – from 1870 through the Second World War to the scattering of the extended family to New York and Thailand, London and Hong Kong in the post-war years.
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Critic reviews
"A tantalising meditation… richly complex and satisfying." (Sunday Times)
"A distinctive voice, polished and profound." (TLS)
What listeners say about The Glass Palace
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C Kendall
- 13-05-24
Terrible narration, fantastic novel
This is one of my favourite novels and indeed I love everything that Dr Ghosh writes, but at times I almost gave up on this audio version. The narrator has a pleasant voice but he insists on repeatedly, way, way, too often, to put a little breathy chuckle into the beginnings of people's sentences, as if they are talking to a child or everything is being said with a wry affectionate laugh. It grates so badly and is more often than not misplaced, implying emotions that often aren't there in the text. How I wish they would get this wonderful book prerecorded with another reader.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dennis Sommers
- 09-06-23
Beautifully written and read
In the course of a very extended family saga, the author manages to work in some extra-ordinary discussions that elucidate aspects of life in India and aBurma throughout the past century. The dialogues among soldiers in the Indian army are well organised and enlightening as are the many discussions on art and literature none of which struck me as intentionally didactic even if they were.
The reading is clear and varied enough to maintain interest throughout what I experienced as a novel in need of abridgement. The plot is very complex and it is essential to be able to remember who is who, and the place of each in the families and it is only the very well crafted interweaving of the stories that maintained my interest, and here the reader must take s great deal of credit.
In my opinion this book may stand alongside ‘war and peace’ for its impact and the beauty of its characterisation, but, like Tolstoy’s masterpiece, it requires commitment and determination to follow in places, and the end for me is perhaps the weakest part of the book which is so often the case with these very long sagas. If the author ran out if puffas it were, before the end, he may have considered finishing the story earlier: his near worship of Angson Suchi dates the whole novel and reads rather sadly today.
Perhaps the most important thing to say in a review like this is that I shall almost certainly read the book again
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