India Be Damned: A Novel of Partition

traces the fate of a group of Indians and foreigners who are ripped from their moorings by the first murderous months of independence, their long-held certainties shattered. As the independence deadline approaches, Britain plays a wild card, appointing world-famous war hero Lord Mountbatten the last Viceroy. "Dickie" and his socialist wife Edwina imbue the end of empire with their legendary panache, and for foreign journalists and freedom fighters alike it's a dazzling show. But inscrutably, Mountbatten decides to rush the process to its conclusion - damning India to a baptism of blood. is a gripping tale of love and paranoia, hope and despair, steeped in the flavours of the subcontinent. Peter Popham's debut novel deftly draws the reader on, ratcheting the tension right up to the shocking conclusion.