The Miniaturist

Set in 16th-century India, Kunal Basu's exquisite new novel unfolds a story of ambition and love at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. Bihzad, the son of the emperor's chief artist, is the most gifted and the most wayward member of the royal workshop. When the emperor decides to move the court from Agra to his new city at Fatehpur Sikri, he takes the brilliant young man with him. Everyone expects that he will one day inherit his father's position at court. But Bihzad's glittering career is brought to an abrupt end by an unpardonable crime. Politics and passion fill the pages of this richly imagined tale, as intricate and sumptuous as the paintings it evokes. Kunal Basu's first novel, The Opium Clerk, was published to critical acclaim. Born in Calcutta, Basu now lives in Oxford, England.