A dramatic meeting at night in a garden in New Delhi is the beginning of a tragic affair between a young Australian archaeologist, Annie, and an Indian poet, Gopala. "A meeting like this only happened when the signs were right... It was like Krishna and Radha at the lily pond." The pace of the novel is swift and direct, moving from love scenes that are sometimes sensual, sometimes tender, to diplomatic and political life. It is a study of India as an ancient civilisation adapting to the contemporary world and of Australia, secular and modern, searching for an identity in its region. Love...