Leela's Book

Alice Albinia

Random House India,

426 pages, R499

Lalita—aloof, self-contained, haunted—is moving back to Delhi from New York after 20 years. She knows her return will unlock many secrets. Meanwhile, Vyasa, her dead sister's husband, the great Sanskrit scholar, is preparing for his son Ash's marriage. Presiding over the drama—indeed inventing it—is Ganesh, the elephantine scribe of the Mahabharata.