Told through the story of the five partitions that reshaped modern South Asia, Sam Dalrymples Shattered Lands is a sweeping history that describes how the Indian Empire was unmade: how a single, sprawling dominion became 12 modern nations and how maps were redrawn by politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait was bound together under a single imperial banner, the Indian Empire, also known as the Raj. It was Britains crown jewel, home to a quarter of the worlds population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. And then, in just 50 years, the Indian Empire shattered. Dalrymples stunning debut is based on meticulous archival research, previously untranslated memoirs, and interviews in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Konyak, Arabic and Burmese. No wonder his father William recently said he now knows how Kingsley Amis felt when young Martin arrived on the literary scene. The old empire might have fallen, but a new writing dynasty is born.