The Siege of Krishnapur
Synopsis
India, 1857 – the year of the Great Mutiny, when Muslim soldiers turned into bloody rebellion on their British overlords. The Siege of Krishnapur is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumours of strife filter in from afar and yet the members of the colonial community remains confident of their military and above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion – at once brutal, blundering, and wistful – is soon revealed.
Author Biography
J G Farrell was born in Liverpool in January 1935. In 1956 he went to study at Brasenose College, Oxford; it was while there he contracted polio. He drew heavily on his experience for his second novel, The Lung (1965). His novel, Troubles (1970), the first in the Empire trilogy, won the Faber Memorial Prize in 1971. A film version of Troubles was made for British television in 1988. The second in the Empire trilogy, The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) won the Booker Prize. J G Farrell died in 1979.
