Book dossier

Farthest field

by Raghu Karnad

"A brilliantly conceived nonfiction epic, a war narrated through the lives and deaths of a single family. A young man from the sleepy south Indian coast, sensing adventure and opportunity, follows his brothers-in-law into the army--and onto the front lines of India's Second World War. His army fights for the British empire, even as his countrymen fight for freedom from it, and Indian soldiers end up on both sides of the vast conflict. The narrative travels from Madras to Eritrea, Iraq, and Burma, unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and devastated by its violence. The Farthest Field reveals how the war transformed India, its army, and the British empire that had ruled the country for so long and would, barely two years after the end of the war, abandon it to the horrors of partition. In penetrating nonfiction prose, Raghu Karnad retrieves from obscurity the epic of India's Second World War--a war the world reveres, but India would choose to forget"--Provided by publisher. A nonfiction epic narrated through the lives and deaths of a single family describes India's experience of World War II, discussing how the country, its army, and the ruling British Empire were transformed by the war.