Indian Summer
The Secret History of the End of an Empire
Alex von Tunzelmann’s account of the end of the British Raj, published when she was two years out of university. It tells Partition through the people who made it, above all the triangle of Louis and Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru, and sets their entanglement against the hurried drawing of a border that a million people died crossing. Widely held to be the most readable book on a subject that usually defeats narrative.
Recommended by 1 Person
William Dalrymple
Partition is a very complicated story. Many people have tried to tell it before, but this is far and away the best book I’ve read on Partition. I don’t think she had particular access to any brand-new material. She certainly didn’t get her hands on the material she would most have liked, the love letters between Nehru and Lady Mountbatten
Interview · November 2009
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