Brinda Charry went to the United States from India as a graduate student in 1999 and has been living there since. She is a novelist-turned-academic-returned-novelist. A specialist in English Renaissance literature (Shakespeare and contemporaries, with a focus on race, cross-cultural engagement in the 1600s and 1700s, and the early history of globalization), she has published a number of books and articles in that field. The East Indian is her first novel published in the United States. She currently lives in Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband.
<p><span style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">'Filled with memorable characters, The East Indian grapples with the brutal colonialism and indentured labour of the 1600s with warmth and wit.' - SHASHI THAROOR Meet Tony - compassionate and insatiably curious, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the coast of India to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself indentured on a Virginia tobacco plantation. Alone and afraid, Tony longs for home, and envisions a life after servitude full of adventure and learning. His dream: to become a physician's assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds. Like the play that captivates him - Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which Tony saw at the Globe during his short time in London - Tony's life is rich with oddities and hijinks, humor and tragedy. Set largely during the early days of English colonization in Virginia, Brinda Charry's The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historical figure and brings his world to vivid life.</span><br></p>
