Category: Historical fiction
Rights: All rights available
Long ago, Vik lived a calm life along the Konkani coast, spending his days in the routine of tapping toddy and returning home to Maim’s meals and Pai’s sweet tunes. Then came the sounds of metallic roars of cannons pilfering through the night sky, as the Portuguese arrived and everything changed. It was that night Vik found a certain rage inside him, one he kept tucked away while doing his best to adapt to this new world. With the new culture came a new way of life, and Vik scrambled to find his place until he met an enterprising thief, Dhaiv, and fell in love with Achal, a dancer at the now decaying temple complex. With them by his side, wielding strange powers from songs, Vik became the Shadow of Goa, the greatest thief the city has known.
Only to lose it all.
Today, Vik returns to the city after seven years in jail. Seven years has brought even more change to the Portuguese colony. Though Vik has done his best to forget the past, he can’t help but plot one last trick. To help him on this heist, he brings together friends old and some new. But this time, he doesn’t have his sights set on gold, but revenge at the man who started it all, Alfonso de Albuquerque, the Lion of the Sea.
Think Ocean’s Eleven meets Mistborn. Set in the 16th century, Songs from the Shadows builds from both Vik’s past and present, through historical events such as the Portuguese Arrival, Cuncolim Revolt, and Goan Inquisition. But more than thieves and treasures, this is a story of our emotions and their effects on our body; the stretches we go through for revenge when blinded by rage. It is the power of these feelings, guided by the idea of Ragas and Rasas in Classical music, that inspires a hint of magic used in the story.
The author: Varud Gupta