Agnes Hussein, descendant of the last sultan of Singapore and the last surviving member of her immediate family, has grown up among her eccentric relatives in the crumbling Kampong Glam palace, a once-opulent relic given to her family in exchange for handing over Singapore to the British.
Now Agnes is seventeen and her family has fallen into genteel poverty, surviving on her grandfather’s pension and the meager income they receive from a varied cast of boarders. As outside forces conspire to steal the palace out from under them, Agnes struggles to save her family and finds bravery, love, and loyalty in the most unexpected places. The Moonlight Palace is a coming-of-age tale rich with historical detail and unforgettable characters set against the backdrop of dazzling 1920s Singapore.
A Sweet and Short Read I must admit that my choice of this month’s Kindle First novel was a difficult one. I chose The Moonlight Palace simply because of its exotic locale and time period, Singapore in the 1920s. However the author, Liz Rosenberg, immediately drew me into her tale about a plucky orphan who with her extended family lives in their ancestral home, a once great palace now in shambles. Rosenberg creates such wonderful characters and such an evocative setting that even its rather slim plot and too tidy…
ANOTHER COMPELLING STORY FROM LIZ ROSENBERG! From the author of The Laws of Gravity, Home Repair, and other works of fiction non-fiction comes a historical coming-of-age novel set in Singapore during the 1920s. The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg is the story of Agnes Hussein, a seventeen-year-old, who lives with her grandfather’s youngest brother in a crumbling palace which stands as a symbol of their rich heritage. Uncle Chachi, as he is fondly called, is the last surviving male heir in the family. Her grandparents are deceased, and…