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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks That Be.

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Speaker 2: Catherine Reigns, our book reviewer, is here with her reads

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Speaker 2: to recommend this weekend. Hey Catherine, Hey Jack. We're going

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Speaker 2: to begin with a new book by Sam Dalrymple. It's

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Speaker 2: called Chattered Lands, and it's a history of modern South

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Speaker 2: Asia told through five different partitions. In that name, Dalrymple

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Speaker 2: will be very familiar to fans of history around India.

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Speaker 3: That's right, because his father, William writes a lot of

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Speaker 3: history around this area. And Sam's taken on the story

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Speaker 3: of the Indian Empire and how this single dominion becomes

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Speaker 3: twelve nations and how the maps you know, in boardrooms

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Speaker 3: and battlefields and politicians and kings and all of the

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Speaker 3: soldiers and all of the people that change this and

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Speaker 3: resulted in the formation of the twelve states that we

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Speaker 3: see today. And it does cover five partitions. It starts

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Speaker 3: in the British Raj and begins with Aiden and Burma

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Speaker 3: and then being separated from the Indian Empire, and then

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Speaker 3: ending up in the West and East now Bangladesh and

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Speaker 3: Pakistan's division. And it begins with the petition of Burma,

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Speaker 3: and that's sort of where the nationalism sort of rears

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Speaker 3: its sort of bloodthirsty head, I guess, and proceeds through

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Speaker 3: that partitioning of the Arabian Raj and then dealing with

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Speaker 3: the petition as we kind of know it now and

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Speaker 3: ending in nineteen seventy one, and you get lots of

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Speaker 3: narrative in here. Darwynp has gone through and interviews and

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Speaker 3: diaries and first hand accounts and really tries to sort

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Speaker 3: almost personalize that that narrative. And it's really violent what happens.

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Speaker 3: And there's really three figures I think that stand out.

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Speaker 3: There was Jena and mount Bountain and Patel and Gena Cuts,

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Speaker 3: this real tragic figure in his personal and political life.

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Speaker 3: And then there's Shadia Patel, who just was peirs to

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Speaker 3: actually be just an awful man. And then mount Batten,

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Speaker 3: who history has probably been kind to in this book

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Speaker 3: really isn't and how he divided the empire, and lots

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Speaker 3: of stuff that he did could have been avoided and

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Speaker 3: certainly less bloodshed, and you know, we're having dealt with

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Speaker 3: things with a little bit more foresight and empathy. And

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Speaker 3: it's really interesting the past and the regions and the boundaries.

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Speaker 3: And I have to admit this is not a subject

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Speaker 3: that I am well versed in, but I found it

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Speaker 3: fascinating and the research seems really outstanding, and the start

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Speaker 3: of writings similar to his dad's, you know, it's you know,

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Speaker 3: that narration and feels like you just kind of going

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Speaker 3: through It never feels like a dry history or reading

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Speaker 3: a textbook. It's fascinating.

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Speaker 2: Oh, very good. Okay, that's Shattered Lands by Sam Drymple.

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Speaker 2: Next up The Air Apparent by Rebecca Armitage.

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Speaker 3: So for something completely different. This novel uses some very

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Speaker 3: loose reference to some historical figures and it centers on

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Speaker 3: this girl, Leslie Villas, and she's built this life in Tasmania.

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Speaker 3: She's working as a trainee doctor and sharing a home

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Speaker 3: with her friends and sort of you know, living a

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Speaker 3: reasonably good life. But actually her brother, her twin brother,

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Speaker 3: is the heir to the British throne once her father passes,

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Speaker 3: and so while she's in the middle of a residency,

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Speaker 3: the real unthinkable happens and her father and brother are

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Speaker 3: killed in a tragic accident, and she finds herself returning

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Speaker 3: to England as the heir of the throne, and her

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Speaker 3: grandmother gives her twelve months to decide whether she should

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Speaker 3: take the crown or return to her life. And there's

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Speaker 3: all sorts of great characters in here. There's an uncle

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Speaker 3: who's desperate to take over and will do anything. There's

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Speaker 3: a sister in law with a devastating secret, and of

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Speaker 3: course a powalace full of treachery and rumor. And there's

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Speaker 3: lots of family drama and mystery and characters and lots

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Speaker 3: of the stories told with the kind of flashbacks and times,

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Speaker 3: and it's a really good tale. And it's got wit

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Speaker 3: and humor and the spectacle of the monarchy and this

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Speaker 3: alternate British royal family where at least half the members

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Speaker 3: you could probably pack as to who their real life

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Speaker 3: counterpart will be. And I didn't think. I went into

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Speaker 3: this with kind of like, oh yeah, okay, I'm not

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Speaker 3: sure about this, and I was surprisingly hooked by novel

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Speaker 3: and a writing's brilliant and interesting and this great human story.

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Speaker 3: It's well worth a read.

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Speaker 2: Oh very good. Okay. So that's the Heir Apparent by

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Speaker 2: Rebecca Armitage Catherine's first book, Shattered Lands by Sam d Rymple,

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Speaker 2: Like she interviewed William d Rymple his father a few

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Speaker 2: weeks ago. You can see that on YouTube. It's like,

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Speaker 2: William d Rymple is just such an amazing communicator. So

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Speaker 2: if Sam is anything like his old man, I'm sure

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Speaker 2: that Shattered Lands is an amazing, amazing book. As well

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Speaker 2: as as well as writing, of course, he hosts the

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Speaker 2: Empire podcast, which has to be one of my all

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Speaker 2: time favorites.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks B from nine am Saturday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio