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Summary and Reviews of Loot by Tania James

Loot by Tania James

Loot

A Novel

by Tania James
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (4):
  • First Published:
  • Jun 13, 2023, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2024, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero's quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years. A wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers.

Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu's sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.

Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu's palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

SRIRANGAPATNA, MYSORE
1794

I

On the day he is taken from his family, Abbas is carving a peacock into a cabinet door. He drives his gouge tip through the rosewood, adjusting the pressure with his pointer finger. Grooves deepen, a beak appears. He moves on to sculpt feathers, stacked like scales. He excels at this task and has never been so bored in his life. Seated nearby on coir mats are his father and two older brothers, Junaid and Farooq. With a post braced against the inside of his knee, Junaid knocks out nuggets of unwanted wood with the tak-tak! of his mallet and chisel. Farooq sketches a pair of peacocks for a headboard. Their father sands a finished post, stopping every so often to shoot Abbas a warning look.

"No more of your toys," his father has told him in private. "Beds and cabinets, that's it. The toys only bring trouble."

Pausing to arch his back, Abbas is distracted by a pigeon fluttering down from a roof across the lane. Curious, isn't it, the way birds bob their ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. What are the different factors that go into social class/caste in Mysore at the time we meet the characters? How are these boundaries enforced (and broken) within the different communities of Indians and Europeans?
  2. Discuss how Abbas's creativity is nurtured and stifled by different people throughout his life. As a child, it's said that "his mind glitters with ideas, yet he has no idea of how much luck he will need" (86)—what kind of "luck" does he receive, and what kind does he miss out on?
  3. Discuss the relationship between Du Leze and Abbas. What is the balance between transactional and genuine connection? How does their teacher-student bond transcend the cultural stigmas of the time?
  4. Compare the scenes of Tipu's battle (the ...
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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

As in any exceptional novel, resonances and subthemes run like an underground river throughout the book—most obvious in this case is the impact of the British in India and the never-overstated reminder of how deeply a country's course of history can be altered by a foreign civilization imposing its own modes. The British swept through the region with a great sense of their own destiny, and in doing so, deprived local cultures of their own...continued

Full Review Members Only (600 words)

(Reviewed by Danielle McClellan).

Media Reviews

Vulture
Loot is lovingly drawn and compulsively readable, with all the pleasures and detail of stellar historical fiction.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Lively and symbolically rich ... A smart, sharp tale, as well crafted as the object at its center ... [James's] prose is fleet and rich in ironic humor ... Loot, as the title hints, is an engaging reminder that today's museum pieces are often functions of forgotten exploitation and theft.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Spectacular ... There's an unceasing exuberance to the prose, and James's descriptions are endlessly witty ... Rarely is a novel so dense with painful themes also such fun. At once swashbuckling and searing, this is a marvelous achievement.

Author Blurb Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies
I read Loot in a single sitting; it is a wild, dazzling eighteenth-century romp across continents with profound things to say about invention and self-reinvention, class and fate, and the deeply human hunger to create family as both bulwark against loneliness and constant source of light and warmth.

Author Blurb Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
Loot is a feast—a hugely fun novel with a delicious plot that offers delights and profundities in equal measure. Each chapter of this sprint across the world serves stunning truths about circumstance and ambition, love and sacrifice, and the fickleness of victory. I devoured this book, and remain in awe of what Tania James has created.

Reader Reviews

Labmom55

Packs a punch
I will admit to initially being drawn to Loot because of its beautiful cover. But overall, its interesting premise was what made me decide to actually read the book. In the 1790s, a young Indian woodcarver came to the attention of Tipu Sultan. He...   Read More
prem singh

Loot A Novel
In a captivating weave of history, 'Loot' by Tania James presents an impressively heartwarming tale woven with the unique record of a developing skilled worker's journey to adulthood, central to an eighteenth-century legend. With the grandeur of a ...   Read More
Kolin

Loot: A Novel of Art, Adventure, and Colonialism
Loot is a captivating and ambitious novel that explores the impact of imperialism on culture, identity, and love. Tania James skillfully blends historical facts with imaginative fiction, creating a vivid and rich world full of memorable characters ...   Read More
Pegeen Brosnan

Takes on too much
The long scope of time and the wide sweep of place in this novel seemed to result in a skim over the surface of many of the themes/ ideas it attempts to take on. ( and I had hoped to be more delved into in the story. ) I wonder if a narrative ...   Read More

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Beyond the Book



The Automaton: Tipu's Tiger

Tipu's Tiger figureCentral to the plot of Loot is the magnificent Tipu's Tiger, the wooden automaton that Abbas, a young Muslim woodcarver, creates in the 1790s in collaboration with the French inventor and clock maker Lucien Du Leze at the request of their ruler, Tipu Sultan.

According to the Mechanical Art and Design Museum (MAD), the word automata (the plural of automaton) is taken from the Greek word αὐτόματα, or "acting of one's own will." An automaton is a moving, mechanical device, usually constructed to look like a human or animal figure, which uses a variety of mechanical systems to give the illusion of autonomous movement. Automata made before the 16th century have not survived, but we ...

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Read-Alikes

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