Rani Selvarajah

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Calcutta, 1757

Bengal is on the brink of war. The East India Company, led by the fearsome Sir Peter Chilcott, are advancing, and nobody is safe. Enter James Chilcott (Jason), nephew of Sir Peter, who claims he wants to betray the Company and help the kingdom – for a price.

Meena, the Nawab’s naive and abused daughter, finds herself falling under the spell of this intriguing stranger: so different from the white men she has long been taught to fear. With the East India Company snapping at their heels, they escape Calcutta with hands stained in blood and pockets filled deep with stolen gold.

Cleansed of their sins by Meena’s beloved aunt Kiran (Circe), the lovers begin a new life and start a family in the Dutch controlled Cape of Good Hope. Yet faced with the spoils of colonial expansion, Meena begins to wonder if she, too, is a souvenir of Western imperialist adventure.

Past resentments and present betrayals begin to pile up as the two struggle to shake off the past and the ever-present shadow of the Company.  As Meena finds herself in a foreign land, without anyone to turn to, she is forced to find out what she is willing to sacrifice when love turns to hate.