Empire Made, Kief Hillsbery
Empire Made, Kief Hillsbery
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Empire Made
My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India

Author: Kief Hillsbery

Narrator: James Cameron Stewart

Unabridged: 9 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/25/2017


Synopsis

Lost in time for generations, the story of a 19th-century English gentleman in British India—a family mystery of love found and loyalties abandoned, finally brought to light.

In 1841, twenty-year-old Nigel Halleck set out for Calcutta as a clerk in the East India Company. He went on to serve in the colonial administration for eight years before abruptly leaving the company under a cloud and disappearing in the mountain kingdom of Nepal, never to be heard from again. While most traces of his life were destroyed in the bombing of his hometown during World War II, Nigel was never quite forgotten—the myth of the man who headed East would reverberate through generations of his family.

Kief Hillsbery, Nigel's nephew many times removed, embarked on his own expedition, spending decades researching and traveling through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal in the footsteps of his long-lost relation. In uncovering the remarkable story of Nigel's life, Hillsbery beautifully renders a moment in time when the arms of the British Empire extended around the world. Both a powerful history and a personal journey, Empire Made weaves together a clash of civilizations, the quest to discover one's own identity, and the moving tale of one man against an empire.

About Kief Hillsbery

Kief Hillsbery is the author of the critically acclaimed War Boy and What We Do Is Secret, which was selected as a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award in fiction. He has contributed feature articles and columns on outdoor sports to Rolling Stone, Outside, and other magazines. He completed his MFA at Columbia University and lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jill

Writer Kief Hillsbery new book, "Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India", is an excellent read...for the right reader. That reader should be interested in Raj India, as well as a search for an ancestral figure who may have thrown off his British garb and "gone nativ......more

Goodreads review by Liam

This is the American edition and title of the book I read 'The Tiger and the Ruby' and what I post below is my review of that title. As far as I know they are simply different editions of the same book but try and get Goodreads to understand that! Only my immense fondness for the author's 'War Boy' p......more

Goodreads review by John

Kief Hillsbery's long searcher his ancestor Nigel Halleck, a Victorian man who went to India and never came back. From 1841-1878Nigel lived though the First Afghan War, The Anglo-Sikh Wars and the Indian Mutiny. He was friends with John Nicolson, Henry Lawrence and with various others. He visited Nep......more