Taj

Just before the beautiful empress of Indostan, Mumtaz Mahal, closed her eyes for the last time, her husband promised to honour her memory with the most spectacular monument ever built.

Taj is the story of that magnificent work and its twenty thousand heroes: architects, calligraphers, master artisans and workers who clambered onto the backs of elephants to drag enormous blocks of marble to the site. This epic tale is seen through the eyes of Balu, a desert boy with an extraordinary gift for drawing who will violate the conventions of society to get back his beloved Aisha, who has been recruited into the sovereign’s harem. With the splendour and treachery of the court of the Grand Mughal as a backdrop, this enthralling novel immerses the reader in a legendary time when a whole empire worked in unison to overcome huge challenges.