Eighteenth century and seventeen year old Abbas, a woodcutter, is bought into another world: the palace court where he is assigned to help carve a genuine artefact, a tiger mauling an Englishman.

From this beginning Tania James crafts a true historical epic, one which crosses continents but never loses focus. She retains a tight control over the narrative, and it whips along beautifully. I enjoyed this one very much.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Abbas is a woodcarver who gets called to the sultan's court to make an automaton of a tiger. The English then take the tiger as loot. Abbas goes to Rouen, hoping to catch sight of his former master, then England where the tiger automaton has been taken.
This is a novel of the effect racism has on its victims, in this case the victims were Indians in the eighteenth century. It is highly readable and very moving.
The descriptions are often perfect, in my view, and the lead character, Abbas, is well drawn. A great story.

I would highly recommend this to fans of [book:Washington Black|39603810] as this seems to have a similar vibe even though the historical context is different: here an adventure set against the background of eighteenth century European colonial expansion in India.

The first section worked best for me as we see Abbas, a young and talented woodcarver, get swept up to the Sultan's court in Mysore where he helps to create the real (see it in the V&A) life-sized automaton of an Indian tiger ravaging an English soldier, complete with growls and an organ built into the body. The sultan's household, the luxurious palace, the presence of wives and eunuchs, the rituals of power all give this opening great presence.

But as the story develops, the imagery of the automaton gets rather lost: Abbas travels to Rouen and then England in search of the looted piece, falls in love (of course!) and meets some quirky characters.

James' writing is very readable and straddles the politics of empire with something more humorous - but I think for me this is too much of a plot-filled book where what happens next is what drives the momentum. My three-stars reflects this reader-book slight mismatch rather than being a comment on the quality of the writing or the story itself. I can see plenty of people loving this book.