Book review of "A Myna Flies" - by Sidharth Kanattil

A book that starts with suspense, and then takes you through adventure, drama, greed, lust, personal ambitions, and action that hooks you till the end. A wonderfully knitted fiction that molds along with a very accurately etched out historical background. Sidharth has done a commendable job in his research of historical facts that dates back to the 1850's and presents it in a form of a beautifully woven fiction that is a definite page turner.

Writing a fiction with historical background with so many characters, multi layering, plots and sub plots is not easy at all. The author glues you into the book right from the first page till the end. I could visualize the scenes that took me back to the Victorian era through the eyes of the heart broken Radha, the revengeful Murad Ali, the ambitious Henry Haines or be it the ever adjusting Sharda Bai to ensure she makes a living for herself and her son. The journey of a determined Ratan who is literally slapped when he gets over-ambitious right from Shahjanabad to Calcutta, through the oceans to the land of plantations and suddenly he finds life making full circle. The description of the sea travel is just amazing. Sidharth beautifully connects all these through the magic of his writing.
Sidharth has done justice to each character's emotions and yet maintained the historical perspective. At the end, the author is really successful in forcing us to question many things. Does it in any way, connect us with our present times? Do we still need to learn many things that history has to teach us? Are there lessons still waiting to be learnt?

And my God, does it really end? We are all desperately waiting for the sequel Sidharth. Make it sooner please....

To sum up, hats off to you Sidharth for writing such a beautiful story and sharing it with the world.