The Splendor of Silence A Novel [Paperback]

When Sam Hawthorne, a twenty-five-year-old U.S. Army captain, arrives at the princely state of Rudrakot in May of 1942, it is on a personal quest to find his missing brother. But Sam's mission is soon threatened by the unlikeliest of sources -- he falls hopelessly in love with Mila, daughter of the local political agent. And Mila, unexpectedly attracted to Sam, finds herself torn between loyalty to her family and the man she loves.

A sweeping and poignant story of forbidden love,The Splendor of Silenceopens twenty-one years later with Olivia, Sam's daughter, receiving a trunk of treasures from India, along with an anonymous letter that finally fills the silences of her childhood. She finally learns the heartrending story of her parents' passionate and enduring love affair -- throwing them in the path of racial prejudice, nationalist intrigue, and the explosive circumstances of a country on the brink of independence from British rule.The Splendor of Silence
Indu Sundaresan

Synopsis:
In 1960s Seattle, a young woman named Olivia, reeling from the death of her father, receives a trunk from India containing, among other treasures, a letter from an unknown narrator. Olivia reads it, finally learning about her father's time in India and about the mother she never knew -- a history that has lived in silence for her whole life.
Thus begins the story of four days in May of 1942 and the events that would shake the fragile peace in the small kingdom of Rudrakot in northwestern India, for many years under the rule of the British Raj. It is the story of Sam, an American soldier in search of a missing brother, and Mila, the free-spirited daughter of the local political agent, and of their sudden love for one another, ignited dangerously within the social tinderbox of a country on the verge of change.
Sweeping and poignant, filled with evocative details from a fascinating time and place,The Splendor of Silencepainl£7