The plot begins with a murder of the merchant from Meluhha. A stable boy named Samasin is entitled a fish hook from the merchant. The boy is held guilty of the murder and imprisoned. He escapes the punishment and travels to Meluhha in search of the owner of the fish hook. The owner's name is Siwa Saqra which he learns from the dying merchant.
On his escape from Sumer he is helped by his master Nergal's wife Ela. He sets voyage on a ship to Meluha and meets Paravar, the ship captain. They develop a cool friendship and he introduces the boy to Velli - a very beautiful woman. They buy a foal from Paravar and boy accompanies them.
The boy continues journey, meets new people, come across hostile experiences, fights with bandits and treasure hunts. The book is a good read for days and keeps reminding you about the people of Meluhha in your routine even when you are not reading it.
Author has done elaborate research on the Babylonian and Mesopotamian civilizations and correlated the events. He has developed an amazing piece of fiction with almost accurate references to the historical incidents.
The book keeps you reading and halts you down when you feel, you need to google and find out what the author is talking about. By reading this and googling simultaneously, I was able to acquire a big bank of knowledge.
I would simply say, the book is awesome with a few compromises on the typos and "Find Synonyms for this word" tool. The author has captured a remote and exciting concept of fiction which upon few improvisations would become a world wide hit like those of Dan Brown's.
About the author:
Vasant Davé was born in Kenya to immigrant parents from India. He was schooled there under teachers coming from all the races living in East Africa during British rule. He passed Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Bombay and served for 24 years in companies manufacturing electrical and electronic capital goods. For another 8 years, he took up industrial market research contracts from consultants based in Singapore and Hong Kong. He conducted face-to-face and telephonic surveys in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for multinational end-users such as Siemens, BASF, Henkel, Dow Chemical, AkzoNobel and Linde. His work in Industrial Market Research often took him to remote parts of the country where he could visit nearby archaeological sites too.
His interest in the ancient past of the sub-continent led him to write a historical novel after retirement in 2008. His technical background helped him to understand and apply historical, geographical, environmental and cultural nuances bearing upon the life during 3rd millennium BC, the period in which Trade winds to Meluhha is set.
