The Palace of Illusions: A Novel
The Palace of Illusions is a 2008 novel by award-winning novelist and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It was released by Picador.
The novel is a rendition of the Hindu epic Mahabharata told from Draupadi's (Panchaali's) viewpoint. It tells the Mahabharata from the perspective of a woman living in a patriarchal world.
Synopsis
- Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to the time of the Indian epic The Mahabharat—a time that is half-history, half-myth, and wholly magical. Through her narrator Panchaali, the wife of the legendary five Pandavas brothers, Divakaruni gives us a rare feminist interpretation of an epic story.
- The novel traces Panchaali’s life, beginning with her magical birth in fire as the daughter of a king before following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at the brothers’ sides through years of exile and a terrible civil war. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her stratagems to take over control of her household from her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husband’s most dangerous enemy. Panchaali is a fiery female voice in a world of warriors, gods, and ever-manipulating hands of fate.[1]
Reviews
- "...it's really intriguing to find a book that deals differently with Draupadi - not a Manushi article or a Gender Studies tract on 'Mythical Women and Agency', but a proper story, like Vyasa's epic, where Draupadi begins. ... The 'mysterious woman' style of narration is unmistakably Divakaruni's." Renuka Narayanan, Hindustan Times[2]
- "Is Divakaruni's novel a usefully accessible version of a remote cultural artifact, or a case of forcing a remarkable quart into a conventional pint pot?" Elsbeth Lindner, San Francisco Chronicle[3]
See also