The book of shadows - Namita Gokhale

Bitiya is a young university lecturer in Delhi whose external beauty has been destroyed in an acid attack. Unable to bear the pain of her scars, or of the sympathetic looks she receives, she decides to leave the city to live in the hills of the Himalayas. There, in an old rambling house, she spends time alone, save for the company of an eccentric, almost magical manservant, Lohaniju. And as the days go by, her face covered by a soft gauze veil, her brightly painted nails the only hint of colour, Bitiya becomes transfixed by the voices that sing out from the foundations of her new home. There is the original English missionary and his wife, she frail, he determined, ignorant, foolish. The two homosexual army officers, under the influence of both one another and of their erstwhile companion, Alaistair Crowley, infamous dabbler in black magic. The Captain and his exquisite, sensual, delicate wife. The Catholic priest, at one with himself and God. And last, but never least, the ghost of the house itself, always there, interfering,controlling, both calming and provocative.

Namita Gokhale is the author of three novels published in India, and of PARO, DREAMS OF PASSION, published by Chatto/Pan in 1984. She was brought up in the Kumaon Himalayas, the setting for THE BOOK OF SHADOWS and now lives in Delhi.

Cleverly constructed and beautifully written.
SCOTSMAN

This is a novel whose craftsmanship is a glorious reminder of a long literary tradition... The juxtaposition of the ancient and modern, the ghostly and mundane, build towards a superbly crafted finale in which all the strands of the story are woven togethe
IRISH EXAMINER

A fascinating story told with considerable skill - part ghost story and part romance
PUBLISHING NEWS