House Of Serpents, The

When a young man dies under mysterious circumstances in a magnificent but shambling old castle, suspicion naturally devolves on a young couple whose attraction for each other appears to flout all decorum. But as the search for truth leads the criminally suspect protagonist to question the author, the boundaries of fiction and reality, of human society and personal identity, and of the nature and limits of sexuality and pleasure are blithely crossed and extended. The narrative displays a profoundly Indian sensibility while playfully exposing the various contradictions and tensions inherent in its various aspects. Thus, antique and modern, rational and supernatural, philosophical and farcial, erotic and exotic are here combined and sustained by the powerful central metaphor of the Serpent. This extraordinary novel achieves a rare blend of passion and intellect that defies literary categorisation, but relentlessly carries the reader on its own impetuous quest.