First published 2004
Lin arrives in Bombay on a forged passport, fresh from breaking out of an Australian maximum-security prison. His guide Prabaker pulls him into a city that swallows men whole, a place where beggars, gangsters, holy men, and exiles all carve out lives in the shadows. Lin sets up a makeshift medical clinic in one of the city's sprawling slums and earns the trust of people who have nowhere else to turn. Then the Bombay mafia finds a use for him. Khader Khan, a criminal who speaks like a philosopher and commands like a king, takes Lin under his wing. Karla, a woman whose beauty masks secrets she refuses to give up, pulls Lin in a different direction entirely. He wants both of them, and neither is safe to want. The deeper Lin goes, the harder it becomes to tell loyalty from betrayal, love from damage. He will end up in a war zone, back in a cell, and face to face with the worst of what people do to each other. He keeps looking for something worth holding onto anyway.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, adventure, crime, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, immersive, intense, introspective, morally-complex
Tropes: found-family, love-triangle, mentorship, redemption-arc
Setting: Bombay, Australia, slums, war zone, prison
Period: contemporary
936 pages · Paperback · Scribe
Content warnings: abuse, drug-use, violence