I was drawn to this book purely for its beautiful cover.
I’m so glad I did as I loved it. Based on a real carved automation carved for Tipu Sultan ruler in Mysore, India and now in the V and A.
Abbas a poor woodcarver comes to the attention of Tipu and joins a French clock worker to create the automation.

We follow Abbas across continents following his creation.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy to read and review.

I was immediately drawn to this book by its brief summary: An epic historical novel of plundered treasure and lasting love. Now for me the story doesn't centre around either the treasure nor the love story. It's all about the main character's desire to have a long lasting legacy. The historical setting is well written and deeply interesting. The writing is excellent and the characters are extremely well written.

Loot by Tania James is a novel about Abbas, a seventeen year old woodcarver living in 18th century Mysore. He is discovered by Tipu Sultan, and apprenticed to clock maker Du Leze. Together they make a mechanical tiger which is now the famous automation Tipu's Tiger on display in the V&A museum. The tiger was taken to London after Tipu's death in 1799. Loot follows Abbas' journey on the trail of the tiger.

The premise of this novel is a really exciting one as it promises a captivating journey across the continents. However, for me, I found it poorly executed. The author has clearly done her research into this story but I feel perhaps it all gets a bit bogged down with facts that it feels flat and lacklustre.

I was more interested in the first part of the book and learning about Abbas and life in the Sultan's opulent palace. However as we journey through Europe the story seems to lose its way. More characters are introduced pushing Abbas into being a secondary character.

Overall for a short book I found it very slow paced and a bit of a plod to read.

My thanks to Random House UK and Vintage for providing me with an electronic copy to read and review.

An entertaining, well-researched and intelligently-written historical fiction novel with obvious and very explicit contemporary relevance to the West’s ongoing debates about the legacies of colonialism – particularly the plundered pieces of art which still reside in Western museums.

Even the title itself is an English word borrowed from the Sanskrit (and in the novel is used also as the title of a card game which takes place during a pivotal scene between two female characters).

In particular this novel places an imagined story around one such piece – the intriguing Tippoo’s Tiger, still displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum and usefully described on its website

"'Tippoo's Tiger' was made for Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore in South India from 1782 to 1799 … The tiger, an almost life-sized wooden semi-automaton, mauls a European soldier lying on his back. Concealed inside the tiger's body, behind a hinged flap, is an organ which can be operated by turning the handle next to it. This simultaneously makes the man's arm lift up and down and produces noises intended to imitate his dying moans."

The author has said that she was first drawn to writing on the piece by the impact it had on her: "I’d never seen a work of art—mechanized or otherwise—that was so bold in its contempt of British power, so irreverent and anti-colonialist"

She has originally intended to write a “heist” novel featuring some people trying to reclaim the piece from an English country house – but then thinking about what would motivate the protagonists, was drawn to making them related to the artists who produced it, which she imagines (not out of line with scholarly views) to have been produced by a local carver and a French artisan (for the automata parts).

And instead we have a novel which I think is best thought of in three parts.

The book opens in Mysore in 1794, when a young toymaker Abbas is summoned to Tipu’s court to assist Lucien Du Leze, a French watchmaker and inventor now effectively exiled from his home country in the post revolution tumult and the two work together on building the Tiger and then on a longer apprenticeship, before due to a change in circumstance in his homeland Du Leze returns (with a fellow exile and that friend’s half-Indian daughter Jehanne). This opening third of the novel is quite intimate part-character study (of Du Leze – despairing of his future and Abbas – convinced he has an artistic destiny ahead of him and concerned as to how he will “leave his mark”) alongside some sumptuous period colour of Tipu’s virulently anti-English court.

The middle section is more varied: coverage of the final months of Tipu Sultan’s life as he tries diplomatic and military efforts to stave off an imminent English attack; detail of the bloody siege of Mysore, the death of Tipu Sultan and Abbas’s narrow escape from the pillage and plunder – the latter of which includes a Colonel Selwyn and his sepoy aide-de-camp man servant Rum claiming the Tiger as a prize for Selwyn’s curio-collecting wife; a diary of a seaman on a scurvy struck ship on which Abbas gets passage to Europe as a ship’s carpenter; Rouen France in 1805 as Jehanne (now De Leze) mourning the death of her adopted father and wondering what to do with the shop she has inherited; and then Abbas arriving at the shop thinking to re-apprentice himself to De Leze and desparing of his death; Jehanne (a maker of fashion) and Abbas (a partly skilled watchmaker) struggling to make a living.

And the final third is effectively the originally conceived heist novel – set in the English country seat of Cloverpoint Castle as Jehanne (with Abbas disguised badly as her servant) visit Selwyn’s widow and her land agent/secret lover Rum offering them various items from Tipu’s court (with a long run aim to see if they can swap them for the Tiger) with the novel then becoming something of a four piece.

I read about 1/4 of it before I moved on to a different book. I found it to be quite slow. I was also listening to a different audiobook which was a similar sort of style which didn't help.
I have this on 'pause' rather than DNF. I will come back to it at some point.

Loot is the story of Abbas, a young woodcarver and toymaker who finds himself working for a French clockmaker in the court of Tipu Sultan in eighteenth century Mysore, just before the colonial expansion of the British East India Company. Abbas and the clockmaker create a tiger automaton to entertain the court and win the Sultan's favour, but history is about to take over and Abbas will get swept up in the drama of the age.

A recommended read, full of derring-do, adventure and romance. Five stars from me.

'Loot' is a rollicking historical novel exploring the wonder and intricacy of Indian craftsmanship and the barbarity of colonial plunder through the imagined events surrounding the real-life 'Tipu's Tiger', an 18th Century Mysorean automaton that is now housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

In her author's note, Tania James observes that it is likely that Tipu's Tiger was created by a mix of French and Mysorean craftsmen, and so, in her novel, woodcarver and toy maker Abbas is ordered to Tipu Sultan's palace to be apprenticed to French clockmaker Lucien Du Leze, Together, they have been tasked with making an automaton of a tiger mauling a British soldier. This is just the beginning of an epic story which encompasses the fall of Srirangapatna (also known as the Siege of Seringapatam, the inciting incident in Wilkie Collins's 'The Moonstone') and the separate travels of Abbas, Lucien and the tiger to Europe.

The plot of this novel is consistently engaging as it moves between perspectives, and James's writing is richly evocative. This novel is a great joy to read, even as it explores serious issues relating to race and colonialism. Although it is very early in 2024, I confidently expect this to be one of my favourite novels of this year. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

I found it hard to rate this book - there are parts I really liked and others I struggled with.
Like other reviewers, I found the first part (which takes part in India) much more compelling than the second one. It's more evocative and personally more interesting, and involves a fictional story about how Tipu's Tiger (which is a real piece of artwork which we can visit in the V&A museum) was created.
In the second part, which takes place in Europe, we jump around a bit more across different characters, and I didn't care about the story of those characters so much anymore - there's also a bit of a change on the focus of the book from history towards adventure, which I don't love as much.
The book includes comments on colonialism, racism, and classism, which I think were well done (but a bit too much on the nose in occasion). The writing is very good and I think there are a lot of elements that will make this book enjoyable for a lot of people.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

i was agonising over the rating between 3.5 and 4 stars. i ended up on 3.5 since it does feel quite disjointed and the first half dragged a bit for me, but i did enjoy this overall. i preferred the indian setting in the first half, however the pace really picked up in the second half focusing on different characters. i found the story really interesting, just a bit disconnected.

This spellbinding historical novel weaves a story around the automata Tipu’s Tiger, and some of the people whose lives it touched. I’ve seen Tipu’s Tiger at the V&A Museum in London, so it was fascinating to read a fictionalised account of it’s creation, and how it ended up in the collection of the East India Company (from where it was ultimately passed to the V&A).

The story revolves around a number of people who are displaced, away from home, or amongst strangers. The main character, Abbas, an apprentice carver who worked on the Tiger, is displaced for most of the story: taken from his home to work in Tipu’s Summer Palace; then an Indian amongst Europeans at a turbulent time in Indian history. His character is sensitively written, with a depth of emotion, ambition and uncertainty that I found really engaging.

The plot takes Abbas from India to Europe, as he follows his ambition of completing his training in order to create automata of the quality of those made by his mentor in India. I was carried along with his fate, and that of the ward of his mentor, Jehanne De Leze. I enjoyed following them through hardships and attempts to build a life for themselves.

Historical novels aren’t my usual genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Thank you #NetGalley and Random House UK Vintage for the free review copy of #Loot in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A historical novel spanning decades of the 18th century and following the fortunes and misfortunes of Abbas, a toy maker and woodcarver, Monsieur Du Leze a clockmaker and Jehanne, the daughter of a friend of Du Leze. At the age of 17 Abbas is summoned to the court of Tipu Sultan in Mysore to assist clockmaker Du Leze. The pair are tasked with building an automaton of a tiger attacking a European soldier. Note: this is a genuine artefact now known as Tipu’s Tiger and is exhibited in the V&A museum in London. I loved how the author has built the tales around this artefact and this is a period in history that I am fascinated by. Written from multiple POV’s this was a wondrous tale that I was fully immersed in wanting so much for Abbas to have a happy life.

Briefly, when the Anglo-Mysore war sees the death of Tipu Sultan and the victory of the English the palace is looted and the automaton is given to an army officer who ships it back to his wife who is a collector. Du Leze had already left for France and Abbas follows by taking a position as a sailor on a ship heading for Europe.

This is an epic tale spanning decades and continents. Abbas is the main protagonist as he travels the world following the ‘tiger’. There is so much covered in this book, the horrors of colonialism, terrible racism and classism but also kindness, love and generosity that knows no bounds of class or race. A wonderful historical novel as a young boy grows to manhood as he follows his dreams. Enchanting. 4.5⭐️

A hugely enjoyable adventure!

If you’re looking for a historical adventure packed with great characters, an intriguing story, and a real sense of place, then you could do much worse than this book.
When Abbas is taken to the palace of Tipu Sultan, little does he know that his toy making skills are required to create an ingenious automaton tiger - working alongside a highly skilled Frenchman who arrived in India during their invasion in the 17th century. As Abbas strives to learn as much as possible, he bears witness to the fall of Tipu Sultan and his ornate palace. When the tiger becomes the property of a high-ranking English officer, Abbas embarks on a journey across the sea to find his French mentor - and ultimately reunite with his work of art.

The characters in this book are really well written, and you find yourself really rooting for them. The author does a great job of making the locations appear in your mind. The female characters are strong and believable, and the story races along at a brilliant pace. It’s a relatively short book considering how much happens, but it doesn’t feel rushed. This was the perfect post-Christmas book - something to excite you out of winter slump, and jump start your 2024 reading.

This was a read that had so much to give romance, history, adventure and descriptive writing so well done you felt yourself actually there in the beautiful palace in Mysore. The characters in the story are all a wildly varied bunch and again so well described that again you could almost see them and the author has an amazing way of really bringing this book to life. It’s quite a quick read and one that from start to finish I thoroughly enjoyed I loved that I couldn’t also look up online some of the carvings that were part of the story.
So a fabulous read and many thanks to Tania James for a read that took me somewhere else and painted pictures in my head.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Random House UK for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Enter Abbas, a woodcarver, toymaker, and dreamer. At the age of seventeen, he is whisked away to the magnificent palace of Tipu Sultan in Mysore. Under the apprenticeship of the eccentric clockmaker Monsieur Du Leze, Abbas is given the task of crafting an ingenious musical tiger to captivate Tipu's sons.

In the peculiar Du Leze, Abbas discovers an unexpected ally who nurtures his skills and thirst for knowledge. Through this association, he encounters the unforgettable Jehanne, a woman with her questions and aspirations.

However, the tranquillity of Abbas's life is shattered when British soldiers attack and plunder Mysore. In the ensuing chaos, his prized tiger is shipped off to an English country estate. To reclaim his creation and carve out his destiny, Abbas embarks on a journey to a foreign land.

Loot unfolds as a hero's quest, a love story, and a vibrant heist novel that intricately traces the brutal legacy of colonialism worldwide. This dazzling and wildly inventive tale showcases a writer at the pinnacle of her storytelling prowess, offering an irresistible narrative that weaves together adventure, love, and the complexities of historical injustice.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if it were in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Enjoyable enough, but I felt like it skipped a little bit and was a bit light - not much depth to the characters or the time period.

Loot is a fictional imagining of the lives of two creators of the real automaton Tipu's Tiger, built in 18th century Mysore. I enjoyed reading about the historical context as well as the process of building the tiger.

The book lost me around the 40% mark, as after this we become very disconnected from the narrative for a while as it feels like half a decade passes every few paragraphs. I realised that I had no emotional connection even to the main characters and really had to force myself to keep reading, especially after Lucien dies off-page and we find out nothing about his life after leaving India.

Overall, I think the characters lacked depth but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to learn about this art piece that I had never heard about, and this book has lead me to do further research and learning.

It's a historical adventure with a sort of love interest in places, but mostly, how two displaced people come together and use their skills to make a living.

The style risked putting me off, as I was wholly engaged in Abbas's world and his troubles, then we seemed to leave him to his own devices and make our way on a ship. Ships at that time were not pleasant places. We have a different narrator, who seems to be suffering from scurvy. I didn't realise that scurvy was so bad. Another thing I've learnt from books this year.

Then we meet up with someone else, now in France, but she has a plan, and once she meets Abbas again, the plan expands into something quite bizarre.

By this time I had settled in to the scenarios that were linked together very skillfully, and no longer irked by the gaps. It's a series of vignettes, following the lives of several people that are interlinked. And I felt it worked, and worked well. The period matched what I've read in other books, the troubles the displaced people encounter, especially with the local gentry, are familiar enough even or especially in this age. Nothing much has changed, it seems.

But at the back of my mind throughout, I was bothered by the tiger. The wondrous tiger made by Du Leze and Abbas. I was sure I had seen it. And the only place I would have seen it would be in a London Museum - and I realised by the end, it is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Yet the author never mentioned that, despite her 'research' in London, Rouen and India as she says in her afterword. I'm so glad the Tippu Sultan's tiger is safe and well, still.

Magical tale of the young dreamer and toy maker, Abbas who becomes apprenticed to a French clockmaker in Mysore in the 18th Century. He’s taken from his family to work in the palace of Tipu Sultan aiding M. Du Leze in creating automatons to entertain the court and the Sultan’s family. After the Anglo-Mysore war the British seize the treasures from the palace including a tiger attacking a British soldier: ‘Tipu’s Tiger’. His life changes drastically after the war, and he eventually travels to Europe where M. Du Leze has said there will always be a place for him. He also hopes to meet up with Jehanne, M. Du Leze’s daughter and Abbas’ friend.
The scenes are quite dreamy and imaginative to read, I have not read anything quite like it. I was fascinated by the people, scenes, buildings, locations, artisanship, designs. You want Abbas to succeed in his mission to find the tiger and I was shocked to find I was at the end of the book when I hoped I was only half way through (perils of reading on a kindle when you haven’t got ‘location in book’ appearing!) I wanted his life story – this felt like an introduction (maybe the first of a series?) But I would have preferred a huge tome of a book covering his life. One star deducted because the story was taken away too early when I was enjoying it SO much.

Wonderful book, spanning over a decade.

We follow Abbas and Jehanne, and to a lesser extent, Rum, on their journeys from Mysore to England and France. At the heart of the story is the wooden tiger, carved by Abbas, its mechanism made by his mentor, the French engineer, M. Du Leze. This is a tale of ambition, displacement, loss and colonialism. In the end there is hope for love.

I very much enjoyed this book, the characters are well-drawn and the background details vivid with their beautiful and terrible descriptions.

Loot by Tania James - 18th century India - Abbas is 17 when his woodcarving talent comes to Tipu Sultan’s attention. Drawn into service at the palace, he works with legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze to build a giant tiger automaton.
Abbas hones his craft and when Du Leze is allowed to return home to Rouen, he invites him to come and work as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas can travel to Europe, Tipu's palace has been looted by the British, and the automaton has disappeared…
This is a beautifully written book, lyrical, a little mystical even, which knows its place in history.
I loved the sections on the building of the tiger, Abbas at sea, and Rum’s story, but got a little bogged down with the stately home chapters and love stories. Still, a 4-star book all the same.
Thanks to @netgalley for a copy to review in my own words. #loot #taniajames #historicalfiction #fiction #india #woodcarving #automaton #bookreview #bookrecommendations