This is a traveler's tale, a story about the strange chemistry that develops from unexpected intimacies on foreign ground. And 's extraordinary talent vividly conjures up the smells of the perfume market, the rhythms of holy men chanting at dawn, the claustrophobic feel of this ancient city's tiny lanes, and the magic of the setting sun over the holy Ganges. For anyone who has harbored a secret desire to go to India and be transformed, , called "mesmerizing" by Gail Harris and "a modern version of E. M. Forster's classic " by Dan Wakefield, takes you on this journey without ever leaving home.