Synopses & Reviews
In turn-of-the-millennium India, a penniless would-be writer halts work on his novel only to feed his ceaseless desire for his beautiful wife. Then a chance occurrence moves the lovers to a sprawling old house in a mist-shrouded spur of the lower Himalayas, where a set of diaries written by a glamorous American adventuress is uncovered during renovations. Her words irresistibly draw the writer away from his beloved, thrusting him through the hole of history into another world and time, revealing dark secrets and overturning all certainties.
Inventive, playful, heartbreaking, brimming with ideas and memorable characters, The Alchemy of Desire is a major literary work by one of the most significant new voices of a generation.
Review
“A lyrical and highly erotic love story.” Mail on Sunday
Review
“At lasta new and brilliantly original novel from India.” V. S. Naipaul
Synopsis
In turn-of-the-millennium India, a penniless would-be writer halts work on his novel only to feed his ceaseless desire for his beautiful wife. Then a chance occurrence moves the lovers to a sprawling old house in a mist-shrouded spur of the lower Himalayas, where a set of diaries written by a glamorous American adventuress is uncovered during renovations. Her words irresistibly draw the writer away from his beloved, thrusting him through the hole of history into another world and time, revealing dark secrets and overturning all certainties.
Inventive, playful, heartbreaking, brimming with ideas and memorable characters, The Alchemy of Desire is a major literary work by one of the most significant new voices of a generation.
About the Author
Tarun J TeJpal is the editor of the Indian national weekly Tehelka. In 2001 BusinessWeek named him among the fifty leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. He lives with his family in New Delhi.