The first part of the Azadi Trilogy begins in India in 1965. An old sea chest has been discovered in the hospital where Dr Wallidad Sharif is spending a year away from his American practice, working in Delhi. The chest has lain unnoticed and unclaimed since 1856, and has only recently come to light. Dr Sharif is asked to take the trunk to America when he returns home with a view to finding the owner's family and delivering the contents to them. He becomes enthralled with the owner of the chest, a Dr Margaret Wallace, and discovers that there may be a connection between her and his own ancestors. His wife, who is a lawyer, joins him in the quest, and together they piece together the story of the lady doctor, and how her sea chest came to be abandoned at St Stanleys Hospital in Delhi. The diary of Dr Sharif's grandfather also comes to light at this time, and he is able to cross-reference many aspects of Dr Margaret's history.

The action is mostly split into two time frames - the 1850s, when Dr Margaret was a fledgling doctor and used her skills to tend to wounded soldiers in the Crimea before moving on to India, and the 1960s, when her story unfolds through the pages of her journals, which are found in the sea chest. Also found in the trunk is a lost treasure, which is being sought by both the CIA and KGB!

There is a fascinating insight into the struggle that women in the mid 19th century had to endure to practice medicine. It was thought undignified for women to see the naked body of a man, and only the persistence of people like Florence Nightingale proved that women were more than capable of being nurses and doctors.

The book ends as the families gather to read the third of the journals, which looks set to contain more startling revelations, and the scene is set for part two of the Trilogy.

A well researched and beautifully written story.

Source: Amazon.com
Date: 2009

Amazon.uk
The heart cries freedom, 7 Feb 2009
By: J. Pittam "Maythorn" (Hertfordshire, England) - See all my reviews

I took this historical novel on a long train journey to Devon, and it did not disappoint. The story is set in two periods - Delhi 1965 and Canada, Russia and India 1865, and follows the story of one of North America's first women doctors. However, the real motivation for this story is clearly India's struggle for freedom - Azadi. The book provides a fascinating and poignant history and would appeal to anyone interested in that beautiful continent, or in a nation's struggle for independence.
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Amazon.com and .ca
An excellent debut novel , March 18, 2009
By: Mirella Patzer "Historical fiction and mediev... (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest
In a hospital in New Delhi, forgotten in a small storage room, lies an unclaimed sea chest, locked and untouched, for more than one hundred years old. The sea chest once belonged to a woman named Margaret, one of the first female American doctors. In 1965 another American doctor named Sharif is given the task of searching for Doctor Margaret's descendents who are believed to be living in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, and return the trunk to them. But things are never simple, and when the contents of the trunk are revealed, Sharif finds himself embroiled in mystery and intrigue that will propel him into the annals of history. From Russia to India, from Canada to America, from the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Underground railroad, this novel takes the reader on a most unforgettable journey into several sensitive times and places in history.

In this richly researched novel, Waheed Rabbani seamlessly weaves unrelated tidbits of history into one compelling novel. Through the words in Doctor Margaret's diary, we get a glimpse into a time in America where slavery prevailed and to face inexplicable danger was the only escape. Rabbani knows how to write with detail, painting vivid pictures of items, places, and characters. For anyone interested in these eras of history, then this novel will certainly bring it to life with great vividness.

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a thoroughly enjoyable, easy read, March 15, 2009
By , Allan Dempster "Al Dempster" (Grimsby, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
  
Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest is a thoroughly enjoyable, easy read. Through flashbacks, this historical novel offers a fascinating portrait of 19th century life. The venues move from North America to India and on to the Ukraine. You gain insight into the Indian Rebellion and also, the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. The book gains momentum as you follow Margaret's diaries and by the end you are absolutley hooked....Can't wait for the follow up book.
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By Author D. B. Pacini "Author & Youth Writing M... (California) - See all my reviews
A SPLENDID STORY, July 4, 2009

Margaret, the main character, fascinates me from the beginning of this novel to the end. As a lovely child she charmed me with her inquisitive mind. As a young woman she impressed me with her determination to become a doctor when society adamantly blocked women from seeking careers in male dominated fields. This beautiful Margaret, this strong willed, capable, quick-witted, and resourceful woman, repeatedly triumphs over tremendous challenges to become an inspiring and admirable female role model in her time in history and in ours.

Waheed Rabbani successfully creates a persuasive tale filled with international plots and guarded secrets. This story connects readers with characters living in 1965 as well as with characters that lived more than a hundred years before. American doctor Wallidad Sharif is originally from Delhi. He has returned to his birth country on a one year medical contract. When the assignment nears its end, he is asked to do a fascinating task. An ancient and securely locked sea chest has been discovered in a hospital storage room. It is believed to be over 100 years old, the property of one of America's first female doctors, Dr. Margaret Wallace. Will Dr. Sharif take possession of her sea chest and try to locate her descendants in the United States and in Canada? Dr. Sharif and his wife Alexandra accept this intriguing undertaking and are soon thrown into a web of danger and conspiracy, being pursued by Russian agents, related to a priceless hidden royal crown, authentic war maps, and remarkable events of history not recorded in modern day history books.

I highly recommend this book. It is the first in a trilogy, and its author Waheed Rabbani masterfully delivers. He is a new literary voice worthy of your attention. I anxiously await the second novel in this trilogy.
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By Shane K. Joseph (Canada) - Connecting the Dots in History, June 29, 2009

Waheed (Wally) Rabbani covers a very interesting period in history in this first of a trilogy of novels. The sweep spans the Underground Railway into Canada, the Crimean War, Dickensian London, the Indian Revolution of 1857 (quite overshadowed in recent times by the one in 1947 that led to that country's independence), the Charge of the Light Brigade (I did not know that it was a spectator event, where a viewing gallery watched the carnage in the valley below), Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and even Florence Nightingale. In addition, the modern part of the story, set in the 1960's, pits those eternal cold war warriors, the CIA and the KGB, in a hunt for the lost diaries of Doctor Margaret. This book therefore, is a thoroughly engaging adventure, with liberal doses of love, betrayal, loss, suppression, emancipation, war, espionage and great historical detail of life in the 1800's in Upper Canada, the neighboring states in America, India, England and Europe.

Doctor Margaret and the narrator Doctor Wally (sometimes I wonder if the author is referring to himself, and if there is more fact to this book than fiction) are well drawn characters with many parallels between them: stoic, bold, both Americans who married Canadians residing in Grimsby, Ontario which also seems to be the epicentre of this tale spanning the centuries, and both who have a connection with India. By appearing to him as a ghost, Margaret is luring Wally into uncovering and revealing the story of her life through the diaries that have been lying in her abandoned sea chest - a story that connects Wally's ancestry and heritage to Margaret's life in India.

The plot moves fast and over multiple locations, and the back story is revealed through a combination of dialogue, diary and investigation. I found the dialogue a bit too proper at times and wondered whether that was reflective of the colonial era, or the colonial writer?

Book #1 documents Margaret's life in Grimsby, England and the Crimea, but doesn't quite get us to her Indian period, yet also hints to a Russian period to follow. For that we will have to wait for books 2 and 3. Therefore, the end left me hanging, as Wally (the writer) did not complete the puzzle: Margaret's life, and death, still remains a mystery. That said, I will eagerly await book #2...and #3.