Indu Sundaresan is an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

author of historical fiction.

Personal life

She was born and raised in India as the daughter of an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

pilot, Group Captain R. Sundaresan, who died in a crash while on duty. Her mother's name is Madhuram Sundaresan. The family then moved to

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, where she collected books eagerly. She then migrated to the United States for graduate studies at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

. She has an MS in operations research and an MA in economics. She is married and lives in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

with her husband and daughter.

Career

Her first novel ''The Twentieth Wife'' is about how a young widow named Mehrunissa, daughter of Persian refugees and wife of an Afghan commander, becomes Empress of the Mughal Empire under the name of

Nur Jahan Nur Jahan (; 31 May 1577 – 18 December 1645), born Mehr-un-Nissa was the twentieth wife and chief consort of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. More decisive and proactive than her husband, Nur Jahan is considered by certain historians to have be ...

. Her second novel ''The Feast of Roses'' is the sequel to ''The Twentieth Wife'' and focuses on Nur Jahan exerting authority granted by her husband

Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal ...

during the sixteen years of her marriage to the emperor. ''Shadow Princess'' is the third novel in the Taj trilogy set after the succession of Shahjahan (Prince Khurram) whose chief queen

Mumtaz Mahal Mumtaz Mahal (; ; born Arjumand Banu Begum; 27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress consort of Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of t ...

dies in childbirth and then their daughter, Jahanara takes centre stage in the politics of the court. She is also the author of ''The Splendor of Silence'', historical fiction set in a fictional Indian princely state just before Indian independence in 1947. Her work has been translated into some 23 languages worldwide. Her short fiction has appeared in The Vincent Brothers Review and on iVillage.com.

Awards

Washington State Book Award The Washington State Book Awards is a literary awards program presented annually in recognition of notable books written by Washington authors in the previous year. The program was established in 1967 as the Governor's Writers Awards. Each year, u ...

for ''The Twentieth Wife'' in 2003. * Light of India award for Excellence in Literature

Works

;Taj Mahal trilogy * ''Twentieth Wife'' (2002) * ''The Feast of Roses'' (2003) * ''Shadow Princess'' (2010) ; Other * ''The Splendour of Silence'' (2006) * ''In the Convent of Little Flowers'' (2008) * ''The Mountain of Light'' (2013)

References

External links

* , essay by the author
"An Interview with Novelist Indu Sundaresan"
''California Literary Review'', 3 April 2007. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American novelists American novelists of Indian descent American women writers of Indian descent Indian emigrants to the United States University of Delaware alumni 21st-century American women writers American women novelists {{India-writer-stub