An exhilarating debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to arrive in Colonial America.
Among the settlers, slaves and indentured servants that make the treacherous journey across the Atlantic to the New World in the early 1600s, there is Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. As a child, his homeland on the Coromandel Coast of India becomes a trading outpost for the English.
Following the death of his beloved courtesan mother, he travels to the teeming streets of Shakespeare’s England, where he is kidnapped and transported to the New World finding himself in Jamestown, Virginia. Here, he and his fellow indentured servants must work the tobacco plantations.
Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds.
Like the play that captivates him – Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Tony’s life is rich with oddities and hijinks, humour and tragedy. The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life. In this coming-of-age tale, author Brinda Charry conjures a young character sure to be beloved by readers for years to come.
The East Indian is a fascinating, Dickensian-style story about family, friendship, and finding oneself in the seeds of a new world. Known as the “East Indian” to differentiate him from the Native Americans, Tony is very much a David Copperfield of the New World. Charry provides insight into issues on class, wealth, welfare and racism through the eyes of our bright-eyed, innocent and compelling protagonist.
Tony is an eminently lovable character; from his devotion to and understanding of his mother to his desire to understand the nature of humanity, he is easily taken to heart. Told in the first person with a clear and charming voice, Charry has ensured we are off and away with Tony from the start. Tony’s descriptions of the world he was born into, and the world he is abducted to, are told with compelling vividness.
Charry, a specialist in English Renaissance literature (Shakespeare and contemporaries) allows her depth of knowledge to shine through her references throughout the novel. Her writing is poised, polished and beautifully crafted. Most outstanding, however, is the joyous sense of play and wonder she has breathed into Tony – like David Copperfield, he is indeed bound to live on in every one of his reader’s hearts. This is the perfect read.
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