An epic tale of nineteenth-century India -- of Sanjay, a poet, and Sikander, a warrior; of hoofbeats thundering through the streets of Calcutta; of great wars and love affairs and a city gone mad with poetry. Woven into it are the adventures of a young Indian criss-crossing America in a car with his friends.'A dazzling first novel . . . Not merely drawing on myth but making it.' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times'Marvellous and compelling.' Charles Palliser'A brilliant novel of wondrous conjuring and stunning import.' John Hawkes'One of the finest Indian novels of the decade.' Shashi Tharoor