‘Deftly recreates the world of the Gupta Empire… widely regarded as the golden period of classical India' – Sanjeev Sanyal
461 CE.
Skanda Gupta, the grandson of the great emperor Chandragupta Vikramaditya, is at the helm of the still-mighty Gupta Empire. Brave, noble and a living legend, the emperor is fighting hard to save his legacy from wave after wave of invasion, intrigue and insurrection. The borders are restive; the palace is swirling with conspiracies; and the Huns are back.
Into this cauldron steps Rohini – an enigmatic half-Hun runaway. She is a riddle Skanda cannot crack. Might she be an assassin, or a spy? Or has she come to the court with an agenda all her own? As ambition crosses swords with affection, Skanda and Rohini must learn a painful lesson: as in war, so in love, victory always comes at a price.
The second book in the Gupta Empire Trilogy, The Poisoned Heart is a saga of tragic love, treachery and hard-won battles in the inner reaches of a once-mighty empire.
About the Author
Nandini Sengupta is a Pondicherry-based writer and journalist. After a chance trip to the Ajanta and Ellora caves in 2007, she began researching third and fourth-century India which quickly deepened into an obsession with India's glorious past. She now lives in Pondicherry's quaint French quarter with her little daughter, Kiki. Her first book of fiction, The King Within, was published by HarperCollins India in 2017.
