I thought this would be an excellent novel for those who have a book hangover from The Covenant of Water. It is a faster paced historical fiction novel written about how Tipu’s Tiger came to exist- through the efforts of a Mysorean woodcarver named Abbas and a French clockmaker. We follow Abbas as he helps create the Tiger that is subsequently taken when Tipu’s palace is looted by the British. Abbas meets memorable characters along the way as he sets out on a journey to reclaim the tiger and his life as an inventor. Tania James keeps this story moving and tells it from multiple interconnected points of view. The novel was entertaining and compulsively readable. I recommend this for avid historical fiction readers, but it would appeal to many because of the descriptive prose, memorable characters and action-filled plot.

Loot does two things really well. First, the writing is lovely. It's evocative without being wordy, pared down but never dull. Second, the historical setting is rich and well-drawn. The novel is set (at least initially) in eighteenth-century India, and we begin with our protagonist being tasked with working alongside a woodcarver to craft a giant automaton of a tiger for the sultan. This particular plotline is based on real events--I highly recommend checking out what the automaton actually looked like--and I personally just found it to be fascinating. That the narrative is primarily focused on this automaton allows the novel to explore themes that I don't often come across, namely craftsmanship and the labour and skill that go into it, the countless hours of work that a finely made object requires.

Once we move on from this initial plotline, though, the novel started to lose me. The first part of the novel works because it is limited in scope and focus: we are focusing primarily on two characters, and those two characters have a specific task that they're trying to accomplish. In that time, we learn about these characters and their dynamic, and so have reason to invest in them. All the sections that followed this first one were lacking in either focus or scope or both. They are set in different times and places (the entire novel spans about a decade), with the novel jumping around from one character to the next, all of them feeling marginal and insignificant because they are never developed enough within the bounds of their very short sections. A lot of the time it just felt like the author didn't know how to get from point A to point B, and so the plot feels contrived to fit the purposes of the larger narrative endpoint that we're trying to get to.

Plot concerns aside, Loot was also a book that never moved me in any way. The writing is lovely, yes, but it also feels a bit...muted. It was like the novel's emotional scale was operating at a 5 at the story's most emotional moments, significant scenes glossed over rather than dwelt upon--the result being that I just never connected to the story or its characters. I enjoyed some parts of Loot, but at the end of the day it's not a book that's going to stick with me.

I had been hearing a lot of praise for this book. It is all justified. I enjoyed it tremendously. This is historical fiction at its finest.

This was such a refreshing read - a new place and time period and I loved the intricate woodcarvings. I could see them perfectly!

Set during the last days of the Indian Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan’s reign over the Kingdom of Mysore, this is an historical fiction. Tipu Sultan was a pioneer in many areas including warfare, governing, and arts and culture. He also introduced the Channapatna toys - wooden toys and dolls, still famous today in the state of Karnataka, India. France and Britain are competing to gain a foothold in the region and local rulers are also fighting for dominance. The story centers around Abbas, a young artist who becomes an apprentice to famous French clockmaker Lucien Du Leze in Tipu Sultan’s court. He meets Jehanne the daughter of a French expatriate. Lucien and Abbas design and build for Tipu Sultan a wooden tiger automaton, which will lead Abbas on a trail to England with a stop first in France. I loved the idea for the book - setting it during that time period and highlighting the fine art of wood crafting and toy automaton. I thought the storyline was a bit choppy and I would have liked more historical background and context. I enjoyed the setting and the concept for the book. Overall it was an okay read. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I felt that the pacing was a little uneven and that it lingered in the middle, rushed to the near-end and then floated through the finale. But that being said, all-in-all, Loot was a good read!

Oh wow, I loved this. We follow a young woodworker named Abbas for the majority of the story, but it dips into other characters' perspectives as well, giving a well-rounded view of their world. It's full of references to real historical events, and I really enjoyed reading more about them on my own as I made my way through the book. You can tell Tania James put a lot of time and research into her writing, and the book is all the better for it.

Loot is full of commentary; on race, class, colonialism, gender. It was a captivating read that I'll be thinking about for a long time. Definitely recommend to fans of Maggie O'Farrell and Anthony Doerr.


Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

This is excellent historical fiction, well-told, believable characters and the plot goes surprising places. Bravo Ms. James.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for a light historical fiction. Set sometime in the 1800's when India was under the rule of the British Crown, the novel does not go deep into the politics of the time. The book is about Abbas, a young boy who is noticed for his wood working skills. He is apprenticed to Lucien du Leze, a French clockmaker. When the Sultan of Tipu wishes a tiger automaton be built, Lucien and Abbas build it together. This book was a little slow but it had enough action from India, boat journeys, pirate ships and love that it flowed well and kept my interest. If you are looking for a deep dive into history this would not be a book for you, but if you want a good read with a love story and a little bit of immersion into the culture of people of India, this book is a good choice. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the digital ARC. This review is my own opinion and my own words.

A beautiful cover and very strong writing, but the story failed to grip me. I loved the historical element of 18th century India, a time I’m not familiar with, and enjoyed the characters but I felt as though something was missing. I’m not sure if I expected more action to occur, more drama to ensue or hoped for the Sultan’s tiger to return to Abbas and Jehanne, but I wanted more. When the book ended, I was surprised it had concluded!

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

Published by Knopf on June 13, 2023

Blending historical drama with an adventure story and spiced with forbidden romance, Loot is difficult to categorize. That’s one reason the novel is so special. The story is anchored by Tipu’s Tiger, a popular attraction at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. While the tiger exists, Loot is an inventive work of fiction.

The story begins in the Kingdom of Mysor. Before it fell, the kingdom was in the southern peninsula of India. In 1794, it is ruled by Tipu Sultan. Lucien Du Leze, a French clockmaker and master of automated figures, has been living for some time in the Sultan’s court. He is impressed by toys carved from wood by a boy named Abbas, including a horse that moves its legs when its tail is lifted up and down. Through no fault of his own, Abbas has incurred the Sultan’s wrath and would likely be executed if not for Lucien’s intervention.

The Sultan has instructed Lucien to make an automaton in the shape of a tiger. The Sultan wants the tiger to be eating an infidel. As conceived by Lucien, the infidel’s arm will move and he will moan in pain when a crank is turned. Bellows and an organ in the beast’s belly will produce the moans, while tunes can be played on an external keyboard to entertain the Sultan as the tiger lunches on the infidel’s throat. Lucien can handle the automation, but he needs Abbas to carve the tiger.

The first part of the story develops the character of Abbas as he apprentices with Lucien, separates from his family, learns to speak French, and vows to learn the secrets of clockmaking and automation. After some time, as the East India Company is poised to invade Mysore, Lucien arranges his return to France. Abbas is not ready to accompany him; he wishes to serve the Sultan in his doomed defense of Mysore. The decision is unwise, but Abbas will survive a harrowing battle and later embark on a journey to reunite with Lucien.

More adventures follow as Abbas becomes a ship’s carpenter in the hope of finding passage to France. Pirates, British naval vessels that conscript crew from other ships (not much different from pirates, really), and disease are all barriers to the achievement of Abbas’ goal.

When he was still in Mysore, Abbas carved a top for a little girl named Jehanne. Lucien came to be her guardian after her mother died in childbirth. Jehanne has traveled to France with Lucien, where she assists him with a shop that sells curios and clocks. Abbas will eventually make his way to Jehanne.

The tiger, on the other hand, has made its way to England. Like palace jewels and attractive women, it became part of the “loot” with which conquering soldiers were rewarded. The tiger was gifted as a spoil of war to a British officer named Selwyn who knew it would delight his eccentric wife.

After Abbas reunites with Jehanne, he wants to recover the tiger, or at least a part of its internal mechanism, as an end to achieving his larger goal of learning the skills that Lucien promised to teach him. To that end, Abbas travels to England with Jehanne with a plan to scam Lady Selwyn.

Lady Selwyn is secretly sleeping with Rum, an Indian servant who is suspicious of Abbas and Jehanne. His suspicions are well founded, but Lady Selwyn is taken with Jehanne. Interracial romance adds to the intrigue in the novel’s last half and, in the case of Jehanne and Abbas, contributes to the novel’s tension — will they or won’t they? They both bear “a wound that the other understands, being severed from their bloodlines, their homeland. Each is all the other has, and this can sometimes be a burden, but also a solace.”

It’s impossible to convey an adequate flavor of a plot that travels in some many directions and touches upon so many subjects, from war to romance, from subjugation to the struggle for self-realization. Despite its average length, the novel feels like an epic. The French Revolution and British colonialism shape many of the novel’s events, but Abbas is barely aware of the political and discriminatory forces that drive his life. He only knows that his experience working on the tiger with Lucien changed his life, left him wanting more, a “more” he initially defines as a life of clockmaking and automaton creation. Only at the end does he realize that his life is open to so many more possibilities. Other characters come to the same realization.

Tania James’ prose is exquisite. Lyrical descriptions of life in Tipu Sultan’s court and in Lady Selwyn’s estate bring the settings alive, while powerful images of war and life at sea give the story a cinematic feel. Careful research adds an illusion of authenticity. James keeps the story in constant motion, joining tragedy with moments of comedy as the story advances to a satisfying conclusion. Readers in search of something different and readers who value good storytelling might want to add Loot to their reading lists.

RECOMMENDED

This novel is a fantastic piece of historical fiction. It starts in Mysore, in the year 1790, where a young wood carver named Abbas is commissioned along with a French clockmaker to construct an automaton. The theme : a tiger eating an English soldier. But when the English crown takes control of Mysore, the wonderful piece ends in London. After an unexpected long journey to France, Abbas meets again with his automaton and his life takes yet another unforeseen turn in which he will find his destiny.
In this novel the reader finds a rich tapestry of characters that come to life in such a vivid manner. You are rooting for them every step of the way and they are so deep and charming. Tania James writing has an innate quality that makes this book a compelling read. I strongly recommend it for those who love a good historical fiction with clever plotting, pace and characters.

I'm not going to lie ... I picked this book up mostly because of the gorgeous cover and because my reading life has been lacking historical fiction lately. Overall, I enjoyed this story of a young woodcarver in 18th-century India and the real-life automaton (Tipu's Tiger) he built. There is quite a shift halfway through the book, and I preferred the first half much more. There are some illustrations in this book, so I recommend the print version if you have the option.

Tip's Tiger is an eighteenth-century automaton or mechanical toy created for Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in India during the late 18th century. James has crafted an intriguing tale around this real automaton that now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
A young and extremely talented woodworker named Abbas is selected by Tipu to work alongside a French watchmaker, Lucien Du Leze, to create a one of a kind automaton of a tiger consuming an Englishman. The book takes off from there, moving from India to France to England, all the while the themes of racism and colonialism remain in the forefront. James is quite successful in giving us an epic tale in only 300 pages, which is no easy feat, nor is creating an entire story around an obscure wooden mechanical toy for that matter.
It took me a few chapters to become invested in the story, but once I did the pages flew by. It is one part coming of age, one part heist and one part hero's journey. All this combines to make for a very compelling, witty and tender historical fiction novel. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something unique and imaginative, yet grounded in facts.

LOOT by Tania James is a delightful novel set mostly in Srirangapatna, the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore in the waning years of the 18th century. I loved this book so much – it surprised me, captivated me, and transported me as only a great novel can.

LOOT follows in the footsteps of Abbas, born into a woodworking family, who gets a lucky break due to his talent and creativity in making wooden toys. He’s recruited to collaborate with a French clock maker employed by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the kingdom, to build a mechanical, musical tiger. From there, he’s in for a rollercoaster ride of triumphs and setbacks, spanning continents and seas, that he could never have predicted.

James’ prose evokes Anthony Doerr’s in mesmerizing talent, a touch of whimsy, and in making the historical immediate, intimate, and vivid with the skillful use of third-person present tense. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction lately, and what sets LOOT apart is how much fun it was to read. While I learned a tremendous amount about this slice of India’s history as well as British and French involvement, it never felt like James' primary goal was to tell the story of a kingdom, nation, or even a sultan – those were background characters in a deeply personal tale of one young man dreaming big and finding his place in the world.

The political commentary – on stolen cultural artifacts, imperialism, class, and displacement – is keen but subtle, never overshadowing the absorbing plot or the unique characters. This is such a satisfying novel, and I can’t wait to read more of James’ work. Delightful literary fiction is so rare, and I am grateful that I had the chance to escape into this world of automatons, the Tiger of Mysore, and British aristocracy.

This isn't just the story of a carved wooden automaton: it's the story of 18th-19th century colonialism in the east. Abbas is an Indian woodcarver, just a teen, when he becomes caught up in his sultan's entanglement with the British Raj. Cast out, cast aside, Abbas remolds himself in France and England, his nation and art appropriated by the west.

This book is more of a 3.25 stars, which I wasn’t happy to give because the story, although containing some interesting events, barely kept my attention for the most part. I absolutely LOVED reading about Abbas, the main character in the book, but not anyone else. I found the other characters a bit dry, especially Lucien. I couldn’t understand how the author was able to write Abbas and his family with such detail and depth and everyone else felt like an afterthought.

Although I didn’t love this book, I am interested in reading the next book by Tania James. I feel like she has it in her to write a truly great book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this novel. What an interesting book. On one level, it is about artists and what they will do to pursue and protect their creations. Abbas is a Muslim toymaker who is commissioned to create an automaton for.a sultun. He ultimately confuses loyalty to the sultan for loyalty to his art, which, through the forces of colonialism, sends him on a long, arduous journey to get back to his creation. The other artist of the book is Lady Selwyn, who is able to pursue her art in a more leisurely, but clandestine, way because of her gender and status. This book was very well done. I actually wish it had been longer. I think there was more to explore with these characters.

Unfortunately, this book failed to ever grab my attention. The premise was right up my alley and I wanted to love it so much. However, I trudged through the story and at the halfway mark, I found myself asking: Is anything significant ever going to happen in this book?? Things did eventually pick up plot-wise, but at that point, I just didn’t care. I felt the author overloaded the novel with historical information instead of developing an engrossing storyline with rich characters we can invest in. There was so much potential here, but sadly, this one just wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.

I struggled. I tried several times to get into this book but I felt bored by it. I hate saying that because I know authors pour their hearts into their works. It just felt bland to me and I lacked the ability to connect to the characters. I also lost the point of the book. Is it about the relationship between boy/teacher? Project and magic? Boy and family? Boy and girl? It went in various directions and in no direction. Wasn’t the book for me.