Loot - Tania James Audiobook

Written by Tania James
Read by Shawn K. Jain
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Books on Tape
Release date: June 13, 2023
Duration: 08:44:03

Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.

Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, British forces have looted Tipu’s palace, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

Abbas proposes an audacious plan to reclaim the object, believing its public display could make them rich and give them the chance to make their mark on history. There’s an unceasing exuberance to the prose, and James’s descriptions are endlessly witty (du Leze’s outfit for the tiger’s unveiling, an Afghani tunic and a shawl from Kashmir, is “an atlas of textiles”). Rarely is a novel so dense with painful themes also such fun. At once swashbuckling and searing, this is a marvelous achievement.

This was not my rip. Mt thanks to the original uploader