Bookwrights: Mandalay's Child

Mandalay's Child
by Prem Sharma
ISBN 0-880404-20-6
392 pp.
5.5 x 8.5 paperback
$12.00

Mandalay's Child
by Prem Sharma

Devi Lal, a highly regarded physician, lives a charmed life with his daughter and her two young (half Indian, half Irish) children in Mandalay, Burma, when WWII breaks out and the Japanese invade Burma.

While their estate burns, the family escapes on foot across the mountains into India with hopes of beginning anew. But soon they are caught in the throes of the communal bloodbath of 1947 India. Caught in the struggles of India's division with Pakistan the family is thrown into chaos and most meet their death.

However, Devi Lal's beautiful young granddaughter (Mandalay's Child) survives and is taken to England by the Nuns from her school. There she is befriended by a young survivor of Auschwitz. From the annals of man's tragic inhumanity against man comes this saga which traverses the depths of human suffering, only to pay eloquent tribute to the ultimate indominability of the human spirit. Together this young couple vows to make a positive difference in a troubled world.

About the author
Prem Sharma was born is Mandalay, Burma. Educated in India, Scotland, England, and the United States, he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Marquette University School of Dentistry. This is the middle book in a trilogy.

Quotes about the Book

"His prose is fluid and his tale compelling. Prem Sharma's novel is as much allegory as history and more the quest for meaning than memoir. He has embroidered tragedy with the articles of hope and valor. For the poetic soul it is a pilgrimage work making."

-Rabbi Francis Barry Silberg, Author of The Philosophy of Moral Values

"Mandalays Child is an extraordinary addition to the grand old tradition of epic literature."

--Arthur Flowers, Professor of Fiction, Syracuse University

"...the novel is extremely moving, and the reader can not help but think of the current Kosovo refugee situation. Prem Sharma is a skilled storyteller combining suspense, coming-of-age themes and spirituality. ...the narrative is compelling."

-- Foreword Magazine

"...readers interested in mid-century Burma and India will enjoy watching this intrepid, relentlessly well-meaning family cope with wave after wave of disastrous events. ...great quantities of political and historical fact enrich these adventures." --Publisher's Weekly
"...Mandalay's Child is an epic novel of sweeping scope, taken directly from the recorded annals of war, and from which emerges this story of courage, generosities, hope, faith, and the indomitability of the human spirit."

--The Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review