RaveThe Telegraph India (IND)This book holds within its heart a secret. It is a secret which I hesitate to reveal because I do not want to spoil it and believe me, revealing such a spoiler would be a misdemeanour worthy of a gangland hit. At the same time, I’m racking my brains to figure out a way to tell you how brilliant this book is, without revealing the secret ... pulls off a feat that, to my knowledge, only one writer has ever been able to pull off in the history of Western literature ... The skin of this beautifully structured book is very tactile. You can hear the coarse sand crunch underfoot, and feel the fog on your face. That is why it is important that I not tell you the secret because it will hinder your immersion into this lovingly recreated world. It is enough that I tell you that there is a secret, that it’s signposted very early on in the book, and that if you take the signpost literally you will rush madly off in the wrong direction. So you needn’t worry about it until the petals of this cloudflower have revealed the faces of the dramatis personae. And right at the end, when the old man laments the loss of his home, you will smile and understand.
