Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Beneath a Marble Sky

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Beneath a Marble Sky

When reading historical fiction I always like to know what is fact and what is fiction. So, two years ago, when I first recommended Beneath A Marble Sky in hardcover, I asked John where fact ended and fiction began, to which he answered, "About 65% of Beneath a Marble Sky is based upon hard facts. All of the royal characters, for instance, were real people and acted as they do in my book. I did make up a few of the characters such as Nizam and Ladli, and the relationship between Jahanara and Isa is the result of my imagination."

He is working on a new book but that is having to take a back seat while he promotes the paperback version of Beneath A Marble Sky. The paperback is being published by Penguin - one of the largest USA publishers, who snapped up the rights after the hardcover was published by a small independent publishing company in 2004 (when it was first recommended at BookBrowse).

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to Beneath a Marble Sky. It first ran in the June 15, 2006 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.