When Peter’s old college friend, the brilliant and rebellious Kriyan, visits him at his newspaper office after five years of silence, Peter is delighted. But Kriyan, though still as dazzling and disorganized as ever, has changed subtly. After a couple of unsettling meetings, Kriyan disappears again … this time into death. Peter now begins a search into two mysteries: Kriyan’s death and Kriyan himself. The answers surely lie in the village where Kriyan has worked as an activist — far removed from Peter’s self-absorbed life in the city, enmeshed in his personal and professional problems.

The characters that people this novel, the sights, sounds and issues of village and city, evoke the personalities and patterns that accompany the upheaval of social change and development across the country, as Peter’s search for answers progresses to its angry conclusion.

Mukunda Rao