What do you think?
Rate this book
A Firestorm in Paradise: A novel on the 1857 Uprising
Before the 1857 Uprising of India, the old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad is sprawling with life—like an ode wavering towards its end. The inhabitants of Red Fort and the splendored world around it, all subjects of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, lived on the cusp of a change with the arrival of the British. Yet, people’s own stories continued against backdrop of this transition.
At the centre of this sprawling narrative is a princess, Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor. Beautiful and vivacious, Falak Ara is curious about the world outside the fort but never imagines being able to leave. Soon, she loses her heart to a salatin—a prince— and longs for a union with him. Her quest is made difficult by a changing Shahjahanabad, on whose horizon lurks a revolution.
Author Rana Safvi unspools the aches of a young heart as she pays homage to Old Delhi—which, like a living, breathing being, has many moods and survives a lifetime in this novel A Firestorm in Paradise.
At the centre of this sprawling narrative is a princess, Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor. Beautiful and vivacious, Falak Ara is curious about the world outside the fort but never imagines being able to leave. Soon, she loses her heart to a salatin—a prince— and longs for a union with him. Her quest is made difficult by a changing Shahjahanabad, on whose horizon lurks a revolution.
Author Rana Safvi unspools the aches of a young heart as she pays homage to Old Delhi—which, like a living, breathing being, has many moods and survives a lifetime in this novel A Firestorm in Paradise.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
495 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2024
13 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Rana Safvi
12 books46 followersRana Safvi is a prominent figure deeply committed to India's rich cultural heritage and diverse civilizational legacy. Her work spans a variety of media including writings, podcasts, videos, and translations. With a remarkable portfolio, she has authored ten books that delve into topics ranging from culture and history to the monuments of India. Notable titles among her works include "Tales from the Quran and Hadith," "The Delhi Trilogy: Where Stones Speak," "The Forgotten Cities of Delhi," "Shahjahanabad: The Living City of Old Delhi," "A Saint, A Folk Tale and Other Stories," and "In Search of The Divine: Living Histories of Sufism in India."
In addition to her literary contributions, Rana Safvi has undertaken the task of translating significant works into English. Notably, she has translated Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's pivotal piece on Delhi, "Asar-us-Sanadid," and "Dastan-e-Ghadar," along with four accounts of Delhi from the 19th and 20th centuries. Her prowess extends beyond the written word—she is a regular contributor to various national newspapers and magazines and has actively participated in conferences and seminars.
Rana Safvi's blog, "ranasafvi.com," serves as a treasure trove of cultural, literary, and historical insights. Her expertise even extends to the realm of food history, where she has penned numerous articles and engaged in conferences on the subject. Notably, she is part of the "Forgotten Food" project at the University of Sheffield, contributing to "Desi Delicacies," a best-selling food anthology in 2021. Within this anthology, she authored a chapter focusing on Qorma, Qaliya, and Awadh cuisine.
Overall, Rana Safvi's multifaceted contributions encompass history, literature, cultural preservation, and the exploration of culinary heritage. Through her diverse efforts, she continues to enrich our understanding of India's multifarious tapestry and deep-rooted traditions.
In addition to her literary contributions, Rana Safvi has undertaken the task of translating significant works into English. Notably, she has translated Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's pivotal piece on Delhi, "Asar-us-Sanadid," and "Dastan-e-Ghadar," along with four accounts of Delhi from the 19th and 20th centuries. Her prowess extends beyond the written word—she is a regular contributor to various national newspapers and magazines and has actively participated in conferences and seminars.
Rana Safvi's blog, "ranasafvi.com," serves as a treasure trove of cultural, literary, and historical insights. Her expertise even extends to the realm of food history, where she has penned numerous articles and engaged in conferences on the subject. Notably, she is part of the "Forgotten Food" project at the University of Sheffield, contributing to "Desi Delicacies," a best-selling food anthology in 2021. Within this anthology, she authored a chapter focusing on Qorma, Qaliya, and Awadh cuisine.
Overall, Rana Safvi's multifaceted contributions encompass history, literature, cultural preservation, and the exploration of culinary heritage. Through her diverse efforts, she continues to enrich our understanding of India's multifarious tapestry and deep-rooted traditions.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 12, 2024
Near the end of Rana Safvi’s debut historical novel, A Firestorm in Paradise, a short poem by Zebunissa ‘Makhfi’ (one of Aurangzeb’s daughters, a poet and a princess) is quoted:
… Through the green boughs the bulbul’s note is heard,
And, wing-clipt and imprisoned, my heart’s bird
Flutters against the barriers, wild for flight.
The front cover of the book may well be an illustration of these lines. The stylized bulbul, the crimson flowers, the green leaves, the billowing clouds: natural beauty, framed in a scalloped arch of what looks like red sandstone. It requires little to make that further inference, that this is the Lal Qila, where that immortal verse is inscribed, Agar firdaus bar rue-e-zamin ast, Hamin ast-o hamin ast-o hamin ast. If there is Paradise on earth/ It is this, it is this, it is this.
But turn the book over and the back cover tells a different story. The red flowers, the verdant branches, have been replaced by orange-red fire: Paradise, wrapped in flames.
The change, from Paradise on earth to Paradise destroyed, is what Safvi describes through the story of her protagonist, the fictitious Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ from a concubine. Falak Ara, who has lived all her life within the closely guarded, cloistered confines of the imperial haram, has little chance to interact with the outside world except through her faithful maid-cum-nurse, Mubarak, who lives in the city. And, every morning, when Falak Ara is able to sit in a riverside pavilion and gaze at the world on the reti, the bank of the Yamuna. It is on this reti that she first sees the handsome young man she falls in love with. Mirza Qaiser is one of the salatin, his father a distant relative of Bahadur Shah’s; and for him, too, it is love at first sight.
But neither Falak nor Qaiser, nor Mubarak and her friends both inside the fort and outside, realize just how ephemeral their paradise is. This, after all, is 1857, a watershed year in the history of Delhi, and everybody is already wondering how the Mughal court, despite the excesses of the East India Company’s officers, is able to not just make ends meet, but maintain what seems a lavish lifestyle. There are rumours of a buried treasure within the fort. There are, too, the gathering storm clouds of discontent and dissent: of people making special chapatis and sending them out, of murmurs of cartridges greased with the fat of cows and pigs.
Safvi’s standing as a historian of repute comes to the fore even in this work of fiction: she draws on what is obviously extensive research to create a vividly detailed panorama of life in the Lal Qila in 1857. Whether it’s the nitty-gritty of the rituals and traditions governing everyday life in the fort, or highly detailed insights into the clothing, jewellery, relationships and rivalries within the imperial family, all come through sharp and clear in Safvi’s descriptions.
Equally evocative is Safvi’s recreation of the world outside the fort: not just in the tangible sounds and sights and smells of Shahjahanabad, but also through its people. The bangle-sellers, the dhobis, the maids, the courtesans, the students at the Delhi College. The poets, the nobility, the saints and the charlatans. Each social class has its own distinctiveness, whether it’s in the brash, bold karkhaandari zubaan spoken by Mubarak and her ilk or the refined, poetry-laced begumaati zubaan of the upper classes. There are, too, the many ways in which the classes intersect, for instance at the festivities centering around the annual Phoolwaalon ki Sair.
The Phoolwaalon ki Sair represents a crucial element of A Firestorm in Paradise, in that it is one of the ways in which Safvi is able to illustrate the syncretic culture of Dilli during the 1800s. This is reflected too in the customs of the imperial family, many of which were derived from Hindu tradition (the book, for instance, includes a fascinating description of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Emperor’s coronation, which begins with the making of moong dal badas). The communal harmony of the period comes through in the book with an easy fluidity, a matter-of-fact acceptance that religion is just one aspect of life, and one that need not necessarily divide.
Against this backdrop of events, Safvi’s characters—the doomed lovers, their friends and family, other peripheral but yet important characters like Hira and Hariyali—play out their lives, convincingly depicted and believable. To heighten that sense of transporting its reader into the period, Safvi bookends each chapter with a short verse from classic Urdu or Persian poetry. Always a carefully chosen verse that reflects the emotion or the times perfectly, this serves to make the book even more reflective of Delhi’s culture, its poetic traditions going all the way back to Amir Khusro.
If there is a lacuna, it is in the slightly careless editing in the first one-third or so of the novel. Besides the occasional (relatively rare) typo, there are several instances of repetitions; for instance, the episode of Ghulam Qadir Rohilla’s attack on the Lal Qila in 1788, and his subsequent ravaging of the fort and its residents, is recounted in a few places.
But this, I will concede, is a minor niggle; the book is a good novel, a worthy companion to Rana Safvi’s fine corpus of narrative history.
(From my review for Frontline: https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/...)
… Through the green boughs the bulbul’s note is heard,
And, wing-clipt and imprisoned, my heart’s bird
Flutters against the barriers, wild for flight.
The front cover of the book may well be an illustration of these lines. The stylized bulbul, the crimson flowers, the green leaves, the billowing clouds: natural beauty, framed in a scalloped arch of what looks like red sandstone. It requires little to make that further inference, that this is the Lal Qila, where that immortal verse is inscribed, Agar firdaus bar rue-e-zamin ast, Hamin ast-o hamin ast-o hamin ast. If there is Paradise on earth/ It is this, it is this, it is this.
But turn the book over and the back cover tells a different story. The red flowers, the verdant branches, have been replaced by orange-red fire: Paradise, wrapped in flames.
The change, from Paradise on earth to Paradise destroyed, is what Safvi describes through the story of her protagonist, the fictitious Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ from a concubine. Falak Ara, who has lived all her life within the closely guarded, cloistered confines of the imperial haram, has little chance to interact with the outside world except through her faithful maid-cum-nurse, Mubarak, who lives in the city. And, every morning, when Falak Ara is able to sit in a riverside pavilion and gaze at the world on the reti, the bank of the Yamuna. It is on this reti that she first sees the handsome young man she falls in love with. Mirza Qaiser is one of the salatin, his father a distant relative of Bahadur Shah’s; and for him, too, it is love at first sight.
But neither Falak nor Qaiser, nor Mubarak and her friends both inside the fort and outside, realize just how ephemeral their paradise is. This, after all, is 1857, a watershed year in the history of Delhi, and everybody is already wondering how the Mughal court, despite the excesses of the East India Company’s officers, is able to not just make ends meet, but maintain what seems a lavish lifestyle. There are rumours of a buried treasure within the fort. There are, too, the gathering storm clouds of discontent and dissent: of people making special chapatis and sending them out, of murmurs of cartridges greased with the fat of cows and pigs.
Safvi’s standing as a historian of repute comes to the fore even in this work of fiction: she draws on what is obviously extensive research to create a vividly detailed panorama of life in the Lal Qila in 1857. Whether it’s the nitty-gritty of the rituals and traditions governing everyday life in the fort, or highly detailed insights into the clothing, jewellery, relationships and rivalries within the imperial family, all come through sharp and clear in Safvi’s descriptions.
Equally evocative is Safvi’s recreation of the world outside the fort: not just in the tangible sounds and sights and smells of Shahjahanabad, but also through its people. The bangle-sellers, the dhobis, the maids, the courtesans, the students at the Delhi College. The poets, the nobility, the saints and the charlatans. Each social class has its own distinctiveness, whether it’s in the brash, bold karkhaandari zubaan spoken by Mubarak and her ilk or the refined, poetry-laced begumaati zubaan of the upper classes. There are, too, the many ways in which the classes intersect, for instance at the festivities centering around the annual Phoolwaalon ki Sair.
The Phoolwaalon ki Sair represents a crucial element of A Firestorm in Paradise, in that it is one of the ways in which Safvi is able to illustrate the syncretic culture of Dilli during the 1800s. This is reflected too in the customs of the imperial family, many of which were derived from Hindu tradition (the book, for instance, includes a fascinating description of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Emperor’s coronation, which begins with the making of moong dal badas). The communal harmony of the period comes through in the book with an easy fluidity, a matter-of-fact acceptance that religion is just one aspect of life, and one that need not necessarily divide.
Against this backdrop of events, Safvi’s characters—the doomed lovers, their friends and family, other peripheral but yet important characters like Hira and Hariyali—play out their lives, convincingly depicted and believable. To heighten that sense of transporting its reader into the period, Safvi bookends each chapter with a short verse from classic Urdu or Persian poetry. Always a carefully chosen verse that reflects the emotion or the times perfectly, this serves to make the book even more reflective of Delhi’s culture, its poetic traditions going all the way back to Amir Khusro.
If there is a lacuna, it is in the slightly careless editing in the first one-third or so of the novel. Besides the occasional (relatively rare) typo, there are several instances of repetitions; for instance, the episode of Ghulam Qadir Rohilla’s attack on the Lal Qila in 1788, and his subsequent ravaging of the fort and its residents, is recounted in a few places.
But this, I will concede, is a minor niggle; the book is a good novel, a worthy companion to Rana Safvi’s fine corpus of narrative history.
(From my review for Frontline: https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/...)
July 25, 2024
Name : A Firestorm in Paradise
Author : Rana Safvi
Genre : Historical fiction
My 💭:
[25/07/24 1.07PM]
So, I am quickly realising that Indian historical fiction genre is growing on me. Unexpectedly so. This is because when I was in school, I used to detest the subject History like plague 😂. I simply couldn't understand what's the point of knowing and mugging up past events that is not going to affect my life whatsoever. Now, so many years later, I am realising that little me couldn't fathom the long term effects of the civilisations and customs and cultures of the past. They indeed have a strong impact in our present society.
This is why I love Fiction genre. Our history textbooks used to lay out facts in such a clinical way that any person will lose interest within a minute. But when those events are laid out before us in the form of story with fictional and real characters, suddenly it becomes real. Suddenly the events transform from facts to actual lives. That is what happened to me while reading this book. The author @sanfi has done a brilliant job of transforming history to real life in her writing 🙌.
I had all but forgotten about what I had read about the 1857 Uprising in India. When I had first looked at the book's cover, I had imagined that it will have a lot of romanticism than facts. Then, I read the author's introduction at the beginning of the book. SO MUCH research underwent for the fruition of this story 😲! I knew then that this book is going to make me time travel back to that era, which it did.
The story is told from the pov of Falak Ara, (fictional) daughter of then Emperor Bahadur. She is a girl, coming of her age, and experiencing the emotions and upheavals of a changing city and a changing heart. Yes, there is a VERY VERY sweet love story that forms the heart of the book. But given the mutinous situation at that time, there was a constant fear of 'what will happen now to them?' coursing through me while I was reading. The author has written the characters and the society is SUCH a realistic way, that for my whole reading time, I completely forgot that I am from 2024, so many years in the future. This was my first experience of bookish time travel 🤩!
It saddened my heart to see that not much has changed in the people from then and now. Not people, rather men. You know, the more I experience life and read, the the more I get convinced that men are the source of all problems and violence, then and now. Be it a battle of greed or religion, there is ALWAYS a man at the source of it. Obviously not all men deserve my ire, but most do. Reading this book opened my eyes to see the correlation between historical events and current day society for then also, men were fighting over Hindu vs Muslim vs Christianity and wealth. And of course, DAMN YOU British East India Company for ruthlessly destroying my country's wealth and STILL pretending to be some sort of aristocrats in today's world - you guys are thieves.
I wish these kind of major historical events were taught to children in story format. The way this book made me feel about my country's history, no textbook or teacher ever came close. Yes, some parts of the book went over my head and I had to skip some descriptive paragraphs to not get bored, but then that's what the rest of my life is there for - to re-read and re-read again 🤓.
If not for my review, read this book for the beautiful poems featured at the beginning and end of each chapter 🌸. Except after the mutiny starts in Dilli and the city is robbed of its life and poems. Like I said, the author is brilliant.
P.S. It was an... experience reading this book while unexpected uprisings were happening in my real life 😓.
Author : Rana Safvi
Genre : Historical fiction
My 💭:
[25/07/24 1.07PM]
So, I am quickly realising that Indian historical fiction genre is growing on me. Unexpectedly so. This is because when I was in school, I used to detest the subject History like plague 😂. I simply couldn't understand what's the point of knowing and mugging up past events that is not going to affect my life whatsoever. Now, so many years later, I am realising that little me couldn't fathom the long term effects of the civilisations and customs and cultures of the past. They indeed have a strong impact in our present society.
This is why I love Fiction genre. Our history textbooks used to lay out facts in such a clinical way that any person will lose interest within a minute. But when those events are laid out before us in the form of story with fictional and real characters, suddenly it becomes real. Suddenly the events transform from facts to actual lives. That is what happened to me while reading this book. The author @sanfi has done a brilliant job of transforming history to real life in her writing 🙌.
I had all but forgotten about what I had read about the 1857 Uprising in India. When I had first looked at the book's cover, I had imagined that it will have a lot of romanticism than facts. Then, I read the author's introduction at the beginning of the book. SO MUCH research underwent for the fruition of this story 😲! I knew then that this book is going to make me time travel back to that era, which it did.
The story is told from the pov of Falak Ara, (fictional) daughter of then Emperor Bahadur. She is a girl, coming of her age, and experiencing the emotions and upheavals of a changing city and a changing heart. Yes, there is a VERY VERY sweet love story that forms the heart of the book. But given the mutinous situation at that time, there was a constant fear of 'what will happen now to them?' coursing through me while I was reading. The author has written the characters and the society is SUCH a realistic way, that for my whole reading time, I completely forgot that I am from 2024, so many years in the future. This was my first experience of bookish time travel 🤩!
It saddened my heart to see that not much has changed in the people from then and now. Not people, rather men. You know, the more I experience life and read, the the more I get convinced that men are the source of all problems and violence, then and now. Be it a battle of greed or religion, there is ALWAYS a man at the source of it. Obviously not all men deserve my ire, but most do. Reading this book opened my eyes to see the correlation between historical events and current day society for then also, men were fighting over Hindu vs Muslim vs Christianity and wealth. And of course, DAMN YOU British East India Company for ruthlessly destroying my country's wealth and STILL pretending to be some sort of aristocrats in today's world - you guys are thieves.
I wish these kind of major historical events were taught to children in story format. The way this book made me feel about my country's history, no textbook or teacher ever came close. Yes, some parts of the book went over my head and I had to skip some descriptive paragraphs to not get bored, but then that's what the rest of my life is there for - to re-read and re-read again 🤓.
If not for my review, read this book for the beautiful poems featured at the beginning and end of each chapter 🌸. Except after the mutiny starts in Dilli and the city is robbed of its life and poems. Like I said, the author is brilliant.
P.S. It was an... experience reading this book while unexpected uprisings were happening in my real life 😓.
June 16, 2024
I dived into the book with a lot of anticipation of quenching my thirst for the history, especially the 1857 uprising while the untimely dramatic effects kept flooding the build-up of the story in regular intervals.
The trope of a concubine's daughter falling in love amidst the 1857 uprising is extremely promising for a novel and that attracted me too. There is involvement of other details regarding the period and people but the main characters get less attention than required. Although the end is tragic laced with gory details of the mutiny but it failed to move me as I found it hard to get attached to the protagonists at the emotional level.
Of course, the novel describes the ranks and customs in the late era of Mughals in Delhi in a vivid manner. The descriptions of royal forts and castles, customs, festivities and salutations around the people are well researched and represented. But the writing is monotonous and at times I felt as if I was trying to read a research thesis. Students of History will surely be benefitted by the details.
The random use of Hindi and Urdu words in the prose is not of my choice as well, it hinders the pace.
The representation of historical facts are the real plus points of the book. For example, the naming history of Delhi has been mentioned here in 1- 2 lines. This could have been a beautiful part but it was ignored to push in many random details, few real and mostly fictional, in the prose.
I found this book too Bollywoodish.
Thank you @penguinindia for this review copy
The trope of a concubine's daughter falling in love amidst the 1857 uprising is extremely promising for a novel and that attracted me too. There is involvement of other details regarding the period and people but the main characters get less attention than required. Although the end is tragic laced with gory details of the mutiny but it failed to move me as I found it hard to get attached to the protagonists at the emotional level.
Of course, the novel describes the ranks and customs in the late era of Mughals in Delhi in a vivid manner. The descriptions of royal forts and castles, customs, festivities and salutations around the people are well researched and represented. But the writing is monotonous and at times I felt as if I was trying to read a research thesis. Students of History will surely be benefitted by the details.
The random use of Hindi and Urdu words in the prose is not of my choice as well, it hinders the pace.
The representation of historical facts are the real plus points of the book. For example, the naming history of Delhi has been mentioned here in 1- 2 lines. This could have been a beautiful part but it was ignored to push in many random details, few real and mostly fictional, in the prose.
I found this book too Bollywoodish.
Thank you @penguinindia for this review copy
September 26, 2025
“A firestorm in Paradise” is Rana Safvi’s first foray into fiction. And although it feels more like a historian’s work than a fiction writer’s, it kept me hooked till the very end. The last quarter of the novel – in which the battles following the 1857 mutiny are described – runs at the pace of a thriller. The novel is rich with details of the paradise that Delhi was before and during that period. The costumes, the ceremonies, the language and the buildings – which is the author’s specialty – are minutely described, bringing that era alive for the reader. Reading this book is a multifaceted experience: saddening, enriching, thought-provoking (as one wonders how Indo-Pak history could have been different had certain things happened differently) and educational. Princess Falak’s and Mirza Qaiser’s tragic love story is a product of the author’s imagination but it feels so factual as it seems to symbolize the tragedy of the fall of the great Mughal dynasty. One of my favorite features of the novel was the use of Urdu poetry with apt translations. Overall, this book is a treat for fans of historical fiction.
July 9, 2025
Jahanabad tu kab iss sitam ke qabil tha
Magar kabho kisi aashiq ka yeh nagar dil tha
Ke yun mita diya goya ke naqsh-e-batil tha
Ajab tarah se yeh bahr-r-jahan mein sahil tha
Ke jis ki khaak se leti thi khalq moti roll
A Firestorm In Paradise, tale set in the turbulent time of the uprising of 1857 brought out by one of the foremost historians and an excellent narrator of that time- Rana Safvi.
Her exemplary knowledge of the life in Shahr Panah (Shahjahanabad) is well reflected in her first work of fiction, from the various festivities that adorned the last abode of the Mughal Empire to the annual pilgrimage to Mehrauli. A love story so delicately weaved together with precise account of Dilli- a city of kings, that for centuries shone as the crown jewel of a magnificent empire which burnt to the ground along with its inhabitants as it was a firestorm in paradise.
Magar kabho kisi aashiq ka yeh nagar dil tha
Ke yun mita diya goya ke naqsh-e-batil tha
Ajab tarah se yeh bahr-r-jahan mein sahil tha
Ke jis ki khaak se leti thi khalq moti roll
A Firestorm In Paradise, tale set in the turbulent time of the uprising of 1857 brought out by one of the foremost historians and an excellent narrator of that time- Rana Safvi.
Her exemplary knowledge of the life in Shahr Panah (Shahjahanabad) is well reflected in her first work of fiction, from the various festivities that adorned the last abode of the Mughal Empire to the annual pilgrimage to Mehrauli. A love story so delicately weaved together with precise account of Dilli- a city of kings, that for centuries shone as the crown jewel of a magnificent empire which burnt to the ground along with its inhabitants as it was a firestorm in paradise.
October 9, 2025
Loved it! Beautiful writing brings a whole era to life
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews