Genre: Historical Fiction| Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Feb 2008) | Running Time: 12 Hrs. 30 Min

Narrator: Sneha Mathan

Good morning! How are you folks doing today? What are you reading these days? I started the new year listening to this gem of book The Palace of illusions (2008) by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni read by Sneha Mathan. Had it not been for my friend Swati, I would have never picked up The Palace of illusions– a delightful narration of Mahabharata from a woman’s perspective.

Oh boy, did I enjoy this book or what? It stayed with me as I prepared breakfast, took Ginger for walks, waited in the carline to pick up girls. Having started listening to the story I no longer could stop midway. My heart and mind yearned to learn more of this perspective of this queen.

What is the book about ?

The Palace of illusions is a retelling of the epic poem ‘Mahabharata‘ as seen from Draupadi (Panchali’s) point of view. Her wins, her failures, her revenge, her desires, her thoughts, her emotions as she weaved her way through her predestined future. A future that would ultimately lead to the epic Kurukshetra war.

“We cannot force ourselves to love—or to withhold it. At best, we can curb our actions. The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power and its weakness.“

-The Palace of Illusions

There is magic in retelling, it brings out the same story from a different perspective. A perspective you may have not paid attention to or perhaps overlooked? Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni tapped in on what hadn’t be explored by numerous other retellings and presented to us via this story.

“A problem becomes a problem only if you believe it to be so. And often others see you as you see yourself.”

-The Palace of Illusions

This story is beautifully narrated, writing is engaging and refreshingly stimulating. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s words flow seamlessly, binding you to the moment like a bee to honey.

"But was a woman's heart any purer, in the end?
That was the final truth I learned. All this time I'd thought myself better than my father, better than all those men who inflicted harm on a thousand innocents in order to punish the one man who had wronged them. I'd thought myself above the cravings that drove him. But I, too, was tainted with them, vengeance encoded into my blood. When the moment came I couldn't resist it, no more than a dog can resist chewing a bone that, splintering, makes his mouth bleed."

Why I loved it ?

I loved this book for many reasons. This retelling imples you to look at the unexplored side of the story, the women of Mahabharata!

Unlike, the many versions before, where we saw Draupadi as the helpless wife, the meek queen or just as victim of great injustice, in this book you see an empowered, fiercely independent, strong willed and a rebellious woman.

A woman who knows her mind and wants to take her destiny headon.

A woman with beauty and brains, who is intelligent, conniving, playful, innocent, a woman with a purpose.

Right through the course of the story, the writer brings in to play Draupadi’s feelings for Karana.Her constant yearning for his love and admiration. Is this fiction or fact, we will never know!

“There was an unexpected freedom in finding out that one wasn’t as important as one had always assumed!”

-The Palace of Illusions

It was Sneha Mathan’s voice that pulled me in to the world of Lakshmi and Radha in Alka Joshi’s The Henna Artist and it was her voice that took me on the journey of Mahabharata. It’s a realization that has dawned upon me that enjoy audiobooks more if I enjoy the voice narrating it.

“Can our actions change our destiny? Or are they like sand piled against the breakage in a dam, merely delaying the inevitable?”

-The Palace of Illusions

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book and can see myself going back to this one again. If you are not in mythological books, I highly recommend reading this book for the fresh new perspective it brings to the age old saga of Mahabharata.

Happy Reading.

“Wisdom that isn’t distilled in our own crucible can’t help us.” – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni