Yalgaar  (English, Paperback, Arnold Boleman)

1659. Maaval province, the hostile forest region between the spine of the Sahyadri mountain range and the Arabian sea. Native to proud, tenacious people living in an inhospitable landscape. Shattered after the rape of the women in his family, the young, hardscrabble Hiroji searches for self-identity and burns to exact revenge for his loss. His journey throws him into the cauldron of rape, loot, slavery, and pillage that has been ongoing in the Deccan for the last three hundred years. He pledges his sword to the charismatic leader of a native rebellion that is battling for independence against the tyranny of the foreign invading Islamic hordes who have created these conditions. What begins as a fight for survival, turns into a holy quest as he learns to change the rules of warfare to match the guile and barbarity of the enemy. Hiroji’s story is set against the backdrop of real people and events that happened during that blood-soaked year.