A Singular Hostage

In a land of exotic splendor, a young Englishwoman finds herself guardian of an orphan child believed by a dying maharajah to be endowed with magical gifts. It is a role that will take her on a perilous journey into a kingdom's walled city to protect a child she doesn't know from a culture she doesn't understand...

A Singular Hostage

The year is 1838. Mariana Givens, a spirited young woman of twenty, has been sent to India to find a suitable husband. Traveling as a translator, she joins the entourage of Lord Auckland, the British Governor-General, as he journeys across India with an army ten thousand strong to meet the fabled Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Punjab.

Eager young officers compete for Mariana's favor, but it is with India that she falls in love: the baggage elephants tramping through country vast and wild; the scent of exotic foods at remote campsites; the enigmatic tutor who is her guide to native languages and ways. Lord Auckland must forge an alliance with Ranjit Singh that will deliver Afghanistan into British control, but as he negotiates his crucial treaty, Mariana is drawn into a perilous conspiracy surrounding the one-eyed Maharajah's baby hostage--a child of mystical repute named Saboor.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 11/26/2002
ISBN: 9780553381764
Pages: 368
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.09h x 5.90w x 0.81d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2002 pg. 1330
Booklist 10/01/2002 pg. 299
Publishers Weekly 10/07/2002 pg. 52
School Library Journal 04/01/2003 pg. 195

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 87228 / Singular Hostage
Reading Level: 6.1 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 21