This novel is set in India and Africa in a time not unlike the present, and tells the story of three irrepressible people trying to find order in an anarchic world. The story centres on Alu, an orphan enlisted by his foster father as a soldier in his crusade against the forces of myth and unreason. When a terrorist bomb blast ravages their village, Alu flees, pursued by a misguided police officer through Calcutta to Goa and on to a trawler that runs illegal aliens to Africa. The Circle of Reason follows the form of the raga in Indian classical music: the first part spans several decades, the second unfolds over three weeks, and the third is like a scherzo with a hectic pace spanning less than a day. This is the amazing first novel by India’s most accomplished living writer of English fiction.
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