Author: Namita Gokhale
Publisher: Penguin/Viking
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 232
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670885592
Description
A work of startling originality by one of India's most daring and talented writers, this ambitious book investigates the nature of reality, love and faith.
Scarred by her lover's suicide and an acid attack that has left her permanently disfigured, Rachita Tiwari has sought refuge in a remote house in the Himalayan foothills. In this rambling house, built by a foolhardy missionary over a hundred years ago, she lives alone, painting and repainting her nails a bright red, careful not to look into mirrors. As she retreats into herself, battling for her sanity and fearful of a world she no longer trusts, a different dimension claims her and the tremendous history of the house is played out before her.
There is the vain fool, Captain Wolcott, and his tragically sensuous mistress, Dona Rosa, 'of the wandering heart'; the doomed lovers Marcus and Munro, disciple of Aleister Crowley, infamous dabbler in black magic; Father Benedictus, 'seeker of knowledge', at peace with himself and his God; and the all-knowing sage crows. With and above them all is the resident ghost of the house, solitary and sad, at times merely an observer as the fantastical destinies unfold around him, and at times unable to remain detached. After a century of silence something compels him to speak - words that the injured woman now inhabiting the house will hear; words that will give her back to herself.