Book Review: 'Another Tale of Two Cities' by Ezhuth Aani

If you ask me right away which of the subjects I hate the most I would say, “History”. But I still remember how I loved it once upon a time. Maybe it depends upon who teaches us or how we take an interest in it. To be frank I loved the way my eleventh and twelfth standard teacher taught me (I probably feel that she is reading this review right now). With that little love for history, that I still treasure, I took on to reading this book titled, ‘Another Tale of Two Cities by Ezhuth Aani’ (Ezhuth Aani is the pen name of Dr. Ananthakumarasamy Ramanathan).

As soon as I mentioned the title I am sure you were taken back to ‘Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.’ Well, I too had the same thought but it is quite different from that book. ‘Another Tale of Two Cities’ is a historical fiction. The story is situated in the first half of the 15th century and a story of twin cities of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. There are a lot of mysteries that you ought to discover by reading the novel.

The characters, plot, storyline and the language are fantabulous. There are a few typos which could be avoided. The historicity described in the book is so vast that it leaves you flabbergasted. Dr. Ananthakumarasamy has written many books and this is his second book of fiction in English.

The cover of the book stands in conformity with the story. The author while presentation of the story dwelt upon numerous themes like society, war, religion, love, conflict, and bravery etc. The whole novel runs through about 303 pages, if history entices you, then reading this novel will never bore you.

We always say history repeats itself, well it does, but if we do not know what happened in the past, how will we face our present and the future? Read this novel ‘Another Tale of Two Cities’ and check out how hatred and love is at its best.