THE SOLITUDE OF EMPERORS

?We do not know what to do
with one of our most precious resources, solitude, and so we fill it up with
noise and clutter…? Suffocating in the small-town world of his parents,
Vijay is desperate to escape to the raw energy of Bombay in the early 1990s.
His big chance arrives unexpectedly when the family servant, Raju, is
recruited by a right-wing organization. As a result of an article he writes
about the increasing power of sectarian politicians, Vijay gets a job in a
small Bombay publication, The Indian Secularist. There he meets Rustom
Sorabjee?the inspirational founder of the magazine who opens Vijay?s eyes to
the damage caused to the nation by the mixing of religion and politics. A
year after his arrival in Bombay, Vijay is caught up in violent riots that
rip through the city, a reflection of the upsurge of fundamentalism
everywhere in the country. He is sent to a small tea town in the Nilgiri
mountains to recover, but finds that the unrest in the rest of India has
touched this peaceful spot as well, specifically a spectacular shrine called
The Tower of God, which is the object of political wrangling. He is
befriended by Noah, an enigmatic and colourful character who lives in the
local cemetery and quotes Pessoa, Cavafy and Rimbaud but is ostracized by a
local elite obsessed with little more than growing their prized fuchsias. As
the discord surrounding the local shrine comes to a head, Vijay tries to
alert them to the dangers, but his intervention will have consequences which
he could never have foreseen. The Solitude of Emperors is a stunningly
perceptive novel about modern India, about what motivates fundamentalist
beliefs, and what makes someone driven, bold or mad enough to make a stand.A
stunningly perceptive novel about modern India with a host of quirky
characters that lend colour to it. It is a novel about what motivates
fundamentalist beliefs, and what makes someone driven, bold or mad enough to
make a stand and will appeal to readers of all age groups. Written by
bestselling author David Davidar, The Solitude of Emperors was shortlisted
for a regional Commonwealth Writers? Prize.