Loot
$28.00
| Title | Range | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Trade Discount | 5 + | 25% |
- Description
- Additional information
Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years.
A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Kirkus Reviews
“Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review
This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is “an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger” (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait).
Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.
Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Bustle, Elle, Publishers Weekly
“Captivating . . . James is a master miniaturist who can create the illusion of a saga in a chapter. And she’s not afraid to radically reset the novel’s place and tone. Her pages feel as full as a 19th-century bildungsroman, with collapsing kingdoms, sailing ships and elaborate schemes . . . And her prose is lush with the sights, sounds and smells of India, France and England, and always laced with Dickensian wit.” —The Washington Post
“Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Loot is lovingly drawn and compulsively readable, with all the pleasures and detail of stellar historical fiction.” —Vulture
“Spanning 50 years and two continents, this rich, compelling novel offers an unflinching look at the violence of imperialism.” —People Magazine
“James’s ravishing prose and trademark blend of lyricism and suspense animate this ingenious caper meets politically acute coming-of-age story.” —Oprah Daily
“Loot held me spellbound from the first page. This is an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger.” —Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet
“Spectacular . . . There’s an unceasing exuberance to the prose, and James’s descriptions are endlessly witty . . . Rarely is a novel so dense with painful themes also such fun. At once swashbuckling and searing, this is a marvelous achievement.” —Publishers Weekly [starred review]
“Steeped in the rich history of three nations and infused with a young man’s unshakable desire to do something grand, Loot is transportive storytelling at its best . . . James’ plot is brilliant and unique, her creative liberties mixing well with the historical realities of colonialism and migration. Her supporting characters are woven with the same care and detail as her protagonist. All of this combines for a stimulating and informative novel, a must-read for adventurers, dreamers and lovers of history.” —BookPage [starred review]
“A rich, sprawling, picaresque historical novel . . . James weaves a lustrous tale of intrigue and survival, cunning and romance.” —Booklist [starred review]
“Lively and symbolically rich . . . A smart, sharp tale, as well crafted as the object at its center . . . [James’s] prose is fleet and rich in ironic humor . . . Loot, as the title hints, is an engaging reminder that today’s museum pieces are often functions of forgotten exploitation and theft.” —Kirkus Reviews [starred review]
“I read Loot in a single sitting; it is a wild, dazzling eighteenth-century romp across continents with profound things to say about invention and self-reinvention, class and fate, and the deeply human hunger to create family as both bulwark against loneliness and constant source of light and warmth.” —Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies
“Loot is a feast—a hugely fun novel with a delicious plot that offers delights and profundities in equal measure. Each chapter of this sprint across the world serves stunning truths about circumstance and ambition, love and sacrifice, and the fickleness of victory. I devoured this book, and remain in awe of what Tania James has created.” —Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
“A novel of wonder and terror and beauty — I was completely captivated by it.” —Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
“Loot is the most transporting and absorbing novel I’ve read in ages—a rich tapestry of an epic, thrilling at every turn. This isn’t just brilliant writing: It’s storytelling of the highest order.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers
“A luminous novel of history that explores the far reaches of empire and of human desire, of love, greed, betrayal, and possible redemption. In this genuine page-turner, Tania James does the seemingly impossible: not only does she breathe life into charismatic characters, she repeats the feat with automatons, for crying out loud. Tipu’s Tiger might be a stolen artifact in a British museum, but you can hear its roar in these pages. Loot is a historical story that bristles with contemporary urgency.” —Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary WomanTANIA JAMES is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Guernica, One Story, A Public Space, and The Kenyon Review. She lives in Washington, D.C.The questions, discussion topics, and other material that follow are intended to enhance your group’s conversation of Tania James’s Loot, a sweeping tale of family and country set in early nineteenth-century India and Europe, where, amid the power struggles of colonialism, a young artist grapples with the meaning of self-expression, loyalty, legacy, and love.
1. What are the different factors that go into social class/caste in Mysore at the time we meet the characters? How are these boundaries enforced (and broken) within the different communities of Indians and Europeans?
2. Discuss how Abbas’s creativity is nurtured and stifled by different people throughout his life. As a child, it’s said that “his mind glitters with ideas, yet he has no idea of how much luck he will need” (86)—what kind of “luck” does he receive, and what kind does he miss out on?
3. Discuss the relationship between Du Leze and Abbas. What is the balance between transactional and genuine connection? How does their teacher-student bond transcend the cultural stigmas of the time?
4. Compare the scenes of Tipu’s battle (the sections “The Final Months of Tipu Sultan,” p. 99, and “The Siege,” p. 111). What is different about the point of view, the narration, and even the events of these sections? Who comes out victorious in the conflicts of humans vs. nature, as well as Europeans vs. Indians?
5. What did you make of the circumstances of Tipu’s death? Was it fitting for his stature as a politician and soldier?
6. Tigers are seen in many forms throughout the novel—the carving of the Musical Tiger, the moniker of “Tipu the Tiger,” and the real tigers that are released during the siege (one of which is shot). How does this animal’s fate—“Bahadur Khan limps into a freedom he knew twenty years before, when he was first taken from the forest. His fur mangy, ribs like claws. He gazes up at the unbarred sky, having barely the energy to draw a breath before he is shot” (120)—embody all these tigers’ situations and fates? How do the European conquerors act on their fear of the “other” in the lands they colonize?
7. Thomas Beddicker’s journals offer an inside look at the conditions of a sea voyage during this time (and a relatively pampered one, compared to other groups of people making similar trips). Which seemed worse—the way people were treated during and after the siege, or how the soldiers and other passengers on the ship fared on their way home?
8. Did Abbas make the right choice in staying behind in India after the siege? How might things have been different for him and Du Leze if they had left together? Consider what he says as a boy: “And so he keeps perfecting the enemy he knows and putting off the one he doesn’t” (48).
9. Although they are left to fend for themselves after Du Leze dies, what social constraints limit the activities and even desires of Jehanne and her aunt? In taking over Lucien’s shop with Abbas by the end of the novel, does Jehanne truly find independence?
10. Where does Abbas meet more insult and derision because of his ethnicity—at home or in Europe? What does this suggest about the prevalence of the colonial mindset during this time?
11. Discuss the relationship and tensions between Abbas and Rum. Do they feel more alike, or more different, due to their backgrounds, their affiliations with Tipu, and the ways they moved forward in life beyond India? How is even their discussion of their experiences among themselves restricted?
12. Rum thinks about his relationship with Lady Selwyn: “What could be more right and fortunate than two people finding one another in the twilight of their lives, their bodies too old to be anything but honest?” (196–97). Did you think their love was honest? What was each of them getting out of the situation that was real and what was manipulative?
13. Is Lady Selwyn’s obsession with Tipu and his relics authentic or fetishized? Consider her imaginings when she dons Tipu’s robe: “Here is the person she always wanted, as a girl, to be. Unbound and destined for elsewhere. Feet set apart, fist propped on her hip. Lady Magellan. Flat-chested adventuress . . . a citizen of the world” (244).
14. Why do you think the book is named after the card game that Jehanne and Lady Selwyn play? What forms of “loot” are there in the novel, who owns them, and what is their relative worth?
15. What changes in Abbas during his time at Cloverpoint that he chooses to go after Jehanne over the Musical Tiger during the fire? Would she have done the same for him?
16. The novel takes place over about sixty years—from 1794 to 1859. How did cultural and individual attitudes shift during this time, if at all? What would have been different for Abbas and Jehanne, both marginalized, if they had met five, ten, or more years in the future?
17. Consider your own family’s heritage. What roles might previous generations have played in the machinations of colonialism? Where do similar attitudes, policies, and communities still exist today?
18. What makes the Musical Tiger so special to Tipu, Du Leze, Abbas, Jehanne, and Lady Selwyn? Does this example of politicized art bring people together or separate them—or both?
US
Additional information
| Dimensions | 1.1500 × 6.6000 × 9.5000 in |
|---|---|
| Imprint | |
| Format | |
| ISBN-13 | |
| ISBN-10 | |
| Author | |
| Audience | |
| BISAC | |
| Subjects | historical fiction books, indian, non fiction, tiger, literary fiction, alternate history, FIC051000, fiction books, books fiction, historical novels, historical fiction, historical books, national book award winners, bestselling books, christmas gifts for women, asian authors best seller, the loot, tania james, korean american books, loot tania james, bestsellers, england, london, historical, war, culture, relationships, family, love, fiction, Literature, epic, families, coming of age, book club books, novels, FIC014000, french, book club, love story |
