Quick-paced and inventive, brimming with ideas and memorable characters, "The Alchemy of Desire" celebrates the chaotic spirit of India at a time of great change. It also offers, in searing, lucid prose, a deeply sensual and moving account of the complex chemistry between sex, ambition and love. This is a major novel by one of the most significant new voices of his generation. "A bold and weighty first novel...sex is practically a character in its own right here, endlessly examined in all its luscious, experimental glory...