"Dear me It is a strange world. Particularly the Indian division of it." Mark Twain's quip arose in the course of an around-the-world lecture tour. Driven by financial necessity, the famed humorist and student of human nature undertook a year-long series of far-flung engagements that would provide both ready cash and the material for one of his most successful books: Following the Equator, which recounts the author's experiences during a two-and-a-half-month sojourn through India.
A century after the publication of Following the Equator, Ian Strathcarron re-creates Twain's...