Indu Sundaresan

{{Short description|Indian-American historical fiction writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Indu Sundaresan | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = India | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | education = University of Delaware (MS, MA) | other_names = | known_for = ''The Taj Trilogy'' | occupation = Writer }} '''Indu Sundaresan''' is an Indian-American author of historical fiction.<ref>[http://www.thehindu.com/arts/do-you-know-what-we-read-last-year/article4253261.ece "Do you know what we read last year?"] ''The Hindu''.</ref>

==Personal life== She was born and raised in India as the daughter of an Indian Air Force pilot,<ref name="bio">{{cite web|title=Indu Sundaresan: Biography|url=http://www.indusundaresan.com/bio.aspx|website=www.indusundaresan.com|access-date=19 June 2017|archive-date=27 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527153220/http://indusundaresan.com/Bio.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> Group Captain R. Sundaresan,<ref name="bio"/> who died in a crash while on duty. Her mother's name is Madhuram Sundaresan.<ref name="bio"/> The family then moved to Bangalore, where she collected books eagerly. She then migrated to the United States for graduate studies at the University of Delaware. She has an MS in operations research and an MA in economics.<ref name="bio" /> She is married and lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and daughter.<ref name="About">{{Cite web|url=http://www.indusundaresan.com/about/|title=About|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-10}}</ref>

==Career== Her first novel ''The Twentieth Wife'' is about how a young widow named Mehrunissa, daughter of Persian refugees and wife of an Afghan commander, becomes Empress of the Mughal Empire under the name of Nur Jahan after marrying jahangir.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130216054038/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2003/02/05/stories/2003020500260400.htm "Mesmerised by the Mughal era"] ''The Hindu.''</ref>

Her second novel ''The Feast of Roses'' is the sequel to ''The Twentieth Wife'' and focuses on Nur Jahan exerting authority granted by her husband Jahangir during the sixteen years of her marriage to the emperor.

''Shadow Princess'' is the third novel in the Taj trilogy set after the succession of Shahjahan (Prince Khurram) whose chief queen Mumtaz Mahal dies in childbirth and then their daughter, Jahanara takes centre stage in the politics of the court.<ref>[https://www.thehindu.com/books/Entranced-by-the-past/article15451034.ece "Entranced by the past"] ''The Hindu''</ref>

She is also the author of ''The Splendor of Silence'', historical fiction set in a fictional Indian princely state just before Indian independence in 1947. Her work has been translated into some 23 languages worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.indusundaresan.com/about/|title=About |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref>. Her 2013 novel The Mountain of Light follows the journey of the 186-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Punjab Empire to the British Crown, spanning the period from 1817 to the diamond's transfer to Queen Victoria following the British annexation of Punjab. The novel traces the gem through the hands of Shah Shuja of Afghanistan, Maharajah Ranjit Singh, and the young Maharajah Dalip Singh, and was published by Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster.<ref>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17397162-the-mountain-of-light</ref>

Her short fiction has appeared in The Vincent Brothers Review and on iVillage.com.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Vincent Brothers Review Issue #19—Home |url=https://thevincentbrothersreview.com/product/the-vincent-brothers-review-issue-19-home/ |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=The Vincent Brothers Review Literary Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Awards== * Washington State Book Award for ''The Twentieth Wife'' in 2003.<ref name="About"/> * Light of India award for Excellence in Literature<ref name="indusundaresan">{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.indusundaresan.com/about/ |website=indusundaresan.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-07-18}}</ref>

== Works == ;Taj Mahal trilogy * ''Twentieth Wife'' (2002) * ''The Feast of Roses'' (2003) * ''Shadow Princess'' (2010)

; Other * ''The Splendour of Silence'' (2006) * ''In the Convent of Little Flowers'' (2008) * ''The Mountain of Light'' (2013)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906123221/http://www.powells.com/essays/sundaresan.html |date=September 6, 2015 |title=A Reader and Writer Be }}, essay by the author * [http://calitreview.com/topics/india/83/ "An Interview with Novelist Indu Sundaresan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507011137/http://calitreview.com/topics/india/83/ |date=2008-05-07 }} ''California Literary Review'', 3 April 2007.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundaresan, Indu}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American novelists of Indian descent Category:American women writers of Indian descent Category:Indian emigrants to the United States Category:University of Delaware alumni Category:21st-century American women novelists