Daily-Ist Tuesday: The Palace of Illusions

::Chitra Divakaruni reads and discusses her latest novel::

Houston's own award-winning writer Chitra Divakaruni will be at Brazos Bookstore reading from her newest novel, fresh from the printers, entitled The Palace of Illusions.

Besides being a Houstonian, Ms. Divakaruni has written fourteen books of fiction and poetry and has been published in over 50 magazines. Her books have been translated into 16 languages; two of them have been made into movies (The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart).

The Palace of Illusions is a retelling of a famed Indian epic called The Mahabharat, considered one of the major pieces of literature of ancient India, and is one of the longest epic poems in the world. Not just a story of kingdoms and princes, the poem is meant to illustrate the four goals of life: dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (pleasure), and moksha (liberation). Divakaruni retells the story through her narrator Panchaali, princess and wife of the legendary five Pandava brothers, giving the tale a feminist twist. No small undertaking! If the novel is anything like her previous, it should be fantastic.

Date: Wednesday, February 20th
Time: 7PM
Location: Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet
Price: Free!

The listed event was chosen by the editors of Houstonist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.