The Conquest of Kailash

<p>From the award-winning author of Toxic Spirits comes a new and heartbreaking </p><p>novel about cruelty and marginalization and the struggle to find meaning in a world </p><p>of mounting prejudice and false belief. </p><p>Gay but still closeted and missing his wife Helen - who has fled their home to </p><p>become a Buddhist nun - Ali Akbar returns in old age from California to India. </p><p>At the Deer Park where the Buddha gave his first sermon he comes across a flyer </p><p>that promises to teach him how to find love again. After being assaulted outside the </p><p>park at a parade led by a religious fundamentalist Ali attempts to make good on the </p><p>promise of the flyer traveling from Benares up towards the icy heights of Mount </p><p>Kailash. Along the way Ali is forced to come to terms with the relentless sexual </p><p>abuse he suffered in childhood in India as well as his personal failures including his </p><p>expulsion from Cambridge University his failed career hopes and most of all his </p><p>relationships with Helen and their daughter Homa. Navigating between competing </p><p>fundamentalisms that mark a time of social collapse Ali tries in the time that he </p><p>has left to seize that last chance to find love again -- even if it takes a very different </p><p>form from what he expected. </p><p>Steeped in the philosophies of classical Greece and India and layered with colorful </p><p>travelogues in India England and the US The Conquest of Kailash is written in Mani's </p><p>characteristically atmospheric and humane style that has attracted readers worldwide.</p><p><br></p>