THE FORTHCOMING NOVEL · VINE LEAF PRESS · 2028
The Spice Road
to Muziris
A sea to cross. A life to reclaim.
He knows the winds.
The sea has other plans.
Ippalai Kuruthimaravan is an indentured Tamil mariner with a life waiting on the Malabar Coast. But the voyage that was to lead him to freedom and marriage with his betrothed was not to be. Betrayed even before he set sail on the uru, the Vanavil, he is carried away by a storm to the desert island of Ilmidar.
Shipwrecked far from home, on that wretched island, Ippalai faces stark choices. Half driven to madness, as the certainties that once sustained him begin to fall away, he is confronted by surprising realisations about the nature of his own self and his relationship with the universe.
Rescued after five years of isolation, Ippalai must claw his way back home. But the world beyond the island has ambitions of its own. In Egypt, the promise of a direct passage to India draws merchants and powerful men, among them King Ptolemy VIII. The knowledge Ippalai possesses is precious: it could change the future of trade between India and Ptolemaic Egypt.
Set across the ancient Indian Ocean, The Spice Road to Muziris is a story of loss, survival, love, vengeance and a first voyage that opens a direct spice route to the Malabar Coast. The novel is an ode to a long-lost name, Hippalus. Could the Indian sailor in Posidonius’ account have been Hippalus, a Tamil sailor of the Chera coast?
ON THE HORIZON
Forthcoming from Vine Leaf Press in 2028. The cover, publication details and ordering links will be shared as they are announced.
Receive book news ↗ACROSS THE ANCIENT SEA
The world of
the Spice Road.
Explore the map at full size ↗ · An illustrated guide to the novel’s world; routes and locations are schematic.
BEYOND THE NOVEL