A writer whose work is popular in her home country of India, Indu Sundaresan has been doing that writing here in the Seattle area—and winning readers in the U.S. (and elsewhere), as well. She follows her recent book of present-day stories, In the Convent of Little Flowers, with a return to historically-set, Mughal-era novels that she is first known for. The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, and The Splendor of Silence, are now joined by her newest, Shadow Princess (Atria). "Sundaresan returns to 17th-century India in this romantic fictionalization of the life of Jahanara, the oldest child of the empress Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan's cherished wife ... Simdaresan has a scholar's fascination with the period ..." - Publishers Weekly. Mumtaz Mahal was immortalized, in death, by the building of the Taj Mahal. This novel becomes the imagined story of the life of a princess who in history did play a part in governance, albeit with much intrigue and mystery. All the richer, hence, for the place of fiction—and this winning, wonderful new novel.