Part 1, Narration Summary

Beneath a Marble Sky is both a love story and a tale of a woman who must find her own true path while bearing the restrictions of having been born a girl and a daughter of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his peerless wife, Arjumand Mumtaz Mahal. In the opulent world of the seventeenth century Hindustani court, Jahanara wants to find the love and respect that are her due because she sees the wondrous love her parents have together, a love that transcends even life, but she also feels the strong pull of duty and the responsibility that comes with being born a princess. Her family is everything to her and she makes promises to herself, her mother, and her brothers, only to find that the one promise she is always able to keep is to love unconditionally.

The novel...