The Holder of the World

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Mukherjee’s new novel tells the story of Hannah Easton, who is born in
the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1670 and later as a young wife is taken
first to England, then to a remote Bay of Bengal outpost of the British
East India Company, where she evolves (somewhat willingly) into the
“bibi” or mistress of a Hindu raja.

In some of her earlier works, Mukherjee dealt successfully with the
subject of identity/alienation; but here, she goes far beyond those in
the richness of character texture and intricacies of plot.

Central to the book is the image of time/space travel. Accompanying the
extension of the characters across time comes their transcendence
through spatial boundaries. The narrative is richly layered with colors
from three continents, following Hannah from the New World to England
and, finally, to colonial India. Boldly conceived, richly plotted, full
of action and romance, The Holder of the World is deserving of a place
on the fiction shelves of all public libraries.