Days Of Gold and Sepia Yasmeen Premji - HARPERCOLLINS

‘… a novel in the classic tradition. A powerful narrative developed against the backdrop of a turbulent century, an epic cast of characters that involves the reader in their destinies by their authenticity and vitality, a rare sensitivity to the nuances of human passion and suffering … Such control of the craft of storytelling is astonishing in a fiction debut’-Girish Karnad ‘A hauntingly elegiac evocation of old Bombay, written with sensitivity and compassion, Days of Gold and Sepia marks the assured debut of a compelling storyteller’ -Shashi Tharoor This is the saga of Lalljee Lakha as he rises from his humble beginnings as a penniless orphan in his desert homeland of Kutch to amass a large fortune as Bombay’s ‘Cotton King’. Set against the eventful period between India’s War for Independence in 1857 and the fledgling freedom struggle of the early twentieth century, this sweeping tale is peopled by a vibrant array of characters – merchant princes and maharajas, courtesans and soothsayers, pirates, freedom fighters and soldiers of the British Raj. Days of Gold and Sepia paints the portrait of a man of courage and character, and is the story of the discovery of life, the pain of a passionate and doomed love and family feuds, and of great personal integrity and human frailty.

Born and raised in erstwhile Bombay, Yasmeen Premji graduated from St. Xavier’s College before completing her master’s degree from Smith College, USA. She worked as assistant editor for the Indian design magazine, Inside Outside, for many years before moving with her husband Azim to Bangalore, India’s IT capital, which she now calls home. This is her first novel.