In the Land of Enki

This is the story of Pramod, a young Indian, who, like many others, goes to the USA hoping to live a more ‘meaningful’ life, but is quickly disillusioned and, in desperation, opts for a totally unknown place which happens to be Basra in Iraq. This is an area of the world known as the ‘cradle of human civilization’, the land of Enki, who was an all-powerful Sumerian god—the ancient mythical equivalent of today’s totalitarian dictators. Pramod’s existential concerns quickly fade away as he awakens to the political reality around him. Observing the effects of a repressive regime on everyday human life, he begins to think of individual freedom as the most essential value till subsequent experiences make him feel that the alternative to an iron order is often not freedom but chaos. It seems to be a ‘choice of nightmares’. Pramod’s gradually deepening awareness is a process anyone can easily identify with, just as the absence of easy solutions is a condition we have come to accept. A political novel in the broader sense, this book, in a quiet probing manner, raises more questions than it answers. Vilas Sarang is a leading novelist and academic. A bilingual writer, Sarang has published several books in Marathi and English. The original Marathi of In the Land of Enki won a Maharashtra Government award and the D. B. Mokashi Memorial award.