Four and Twenty Blackbirds the Insane Life of an English Smuggler in Bombay (in English)
Synopsis "Four and Twenty Blackbirds the Insane Life of an English Smuggler in Bombay (in English)"
DescriptionMidnight, 15 August 1947. As India's tryst with destiny reverberated acrossthe world, Charlie Strongbow, born in Bombay, a renegade Englishman, mercenary, philosopher and schizophrenic, began his own bizarre journey.While nascent India floundered and struggled, Charlie, along with anEnglish goon called Thommo, a devious accountant named Willie, a viciousPortuguese temptress, Dona Maria, and twenty British desperadoes, tookpossession of Cross Island near the Bombay Docks. Here they functioned inillegal harmony, bound by no rules and no principles, and set about building ablack-market trade between Southampton and Bombay.There was no stopping Charlie-but for memories of his own past filled withthe misery of childhood abuse and guilt at having abandoned his daughters. Ashe drank himself to senselessness and let his inner demons take over, DetectiveDesai, a man Charlie had destroyed, raised an unrelenting war against CrossIsland. But the severest blow of all would be struck by Dona Maria...Based on true events, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is an utterly gripping novel-the disturbing, astonishing story of an Englishman who won everything butlost his soul on a no man's land in the Arabian Sea.
