Empire

‘Sumptuously detailed, beautifully imagined...Empire is an exceptional achievement and will be the mark against which later books will be measured.’ —The Wire

‘As high on adrenaline as it is on authentic detailing.’ —Firstpost

‘A gripping historical novel.’ —Hindustan Times

‘Yesodharan does a beautiful job of bringing alive a distant and dramatic past and peopling it with heroes and heroines that will intrigue, surprise and delight the readers – and stay with them long after they’ve finished reading.’ – Chitra Divakaruni

‘Perfect tapestry intricately woven with threads of history and fiction. Imaginative, intriguing and intense.’ – Ashwin Sanghi

A woman of courage, with dagger and bow, will do countless deeds: dark and light, right and low. Her armour dark, her armour gold, around her red rivers will flow. An Indian empire at the peak of its power. A great port heaped with spices, silks, jewellery, perfumes, weapons. Everyone wants a share of the riches of Nagapattinam. When a Greek pirate ship sails in to loot the wealth of the Cholas, it is brutally defeated by the navy and forced to pay a compensation. A payment that includes a twelve-year-old girl, Aremis. Aremis grows up to be a skilled warrior, a great asset to the Cholas. But she is a foreigner among her captors, even though the emperor trusts her to guard his person. Anantha, the man who took her captive, the supreme commander of the empire’s armies, is a wily strategist. But he no longer has the stomach for war. The emperor’s ambitions weary him. Rajendra Chola has conquered Lanka, now he wants to rule the Indian Ocean. Their future is set: a dangerous journey across the seas and a bloody, brutal war they cannot survive undamaged.