Before the 1857 Uprising of India, the old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad is sprawling with life―like an ode wavering towards its end. The inhabitants of Red Fort and the splendored world around it, all subjects of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, lived on the cusp of a change with the arrival of the British. Yet, people’s own stories continued against backdrop of this transition. At the centre of this sprawling narrative is a princess, Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor. Beautiful and vivacious, Falak Ara is curious about the world outside the fort but never imagines being able to leave. Soon, she loses her heart to a salatin―a prince― and longs for a union with him. Her quest is made difficult by a changing Shahjahanabad, on whose horizon lurks a revolution. Author Rana Safvi unspools the aches of a young heart as she pays homage to Old Delhi―which, like a living, breathing being, has many moods and survives a lifetime in this novel A Firestorm in Paradise.

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