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| Beneath a Marble Sky | 
 enlarge | Author: John Shors
Publisher: NAL Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $2.60
You Save: $11.40 (81%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $1.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  (93 reviews)
Sales Rank: 27508
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0451218469
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780451218469
ASIN: 0451218469
Publication Date: June 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Journey to dazzling seventeenth-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissions the building of the Taj Mahal as a testament to the marvel of their love. Princess Jahanara, their courageous daughter, recounts their mesmerizing tale, while sharing her own parallel tale of forbidden love with the celebrated architect of the Taj Mahal. This impressive novel sweeps readers away to a historical Hindustan brimming with action and intrigue in an era when, alongside the brutalities of war and oppression, architecture and the art of love and passion reached a pinnacle of perfection.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
 Just the right amount of romance November 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Terrific novel. I loved it. Well written and suprisingly, by a dude. Shors does a terrific job writing from a female viewpoint. The novel follows the life of Jahanara, the daughter of the great emperor who built the Taj Mahal. Very detailed about her immediate family and the tragedies that befell them. She leads a life full of great pain and misery with little bursts of joy here and there and finally, when you think no end is in sight, her dreams come true. The love between her and the architect was amazingly enduring. Truly a rare kind of love not found in real life. It was not, however, so romantic as to be cheesy. I feel it was lacking a few details though. For example, We know Jahanara's mother had a total of 14 children, but only 5 are in this book. We have no idea what became of the other 9. And some more detail about the emperors other wives and children would have been interesting. Considering emperors had many wives and children, I find it hard to believe all his attention was on this particular wife and 5 children all the time. I would like to add that more detail about architecture would make the book too dull. Thought that it was the right amount in that aspect as well. I will be ordering more by this author.
 A great book October 29, 2008
Coming back from a trip to India, I picked up this book at an airport. Traveling is hard on me because I can't sleep on the plane. But this flight home was a joy and I didn't want it to end before I was done with the book. I knew from the first chapter on that I was hooked. This is a beautifully written book, a work of art, great penmanship, fantastic story telling, intellectually fulfilling. A book full of colorful characters with a rich love story. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Wonderful! September 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Beautiful story! It was one of those books I kept thinking about when I wasn't reading.
Wonderful-looking forward to more from this author September 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me so I could thank them! I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, but this is a lovely book. The author did a good job of letting us get to know the characters, which is something mostly missing in new fiction today. I am looking forward to the next novel from this author.
 Disappointing August 16, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love historical fiction, and I was really looking forward to exploring the building of the Taj Mahal and a study of India with a fictitious story as the vehicle. But I soon tired of the romance novel feel of this book and quit reading it about 125 pages into it--something I rarely do. After turning ahead and seeing only more of the same, there was no reason to go on. It was too boring. It had a shallow, superficial feel that was more like a comic book or novel for teens than a serious novel for adults. I had just finished Michener's classic, Caravans, and felt like I was traveling in Afghanistan in 1946. This one had none of that feel. I'll keep looking for something with some substance, depth, and character development about India--maybe Taj will be more satisfying. I am sorely disappointed in this book.
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