Dear Reader

Welcome to BookCrossing and thanks for being a part of World Book Night 2011, the largest book giveaway in history. 1,000,000 specially printed copies of 25 different books changed hands on March 5th 2011 and began their journey from reader to reader. This book is one of them. World Book Night has joined with BookCrossing to help track these books as they travel. You can be a part of that journey by making a comment in the book's journal here on BookCrossing. Your journal entry can say how you got the book, what you thought of it, your plans for it or whatever else you might like to add.

On BookCrossing you may choose to remain anonymous or join (it's free). If you join, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry for this specific copy of this book (other copies of the book are travelling with their own ID number. Every copy of every book has a unique ID). It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and spam-free.

Thanks in advance for being part of World Book Night and BookCrossing. And happy reading and sharing.

This book is being released via BookCrossing on 5 March 2011 as part of the inaugural World Book Night. With the full support of the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Independent Publishers Guild, the Reading Agency with libraries, World Book Day and the BBC, one million books will be given away by an army of passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland.

Read and release!

A fast paced novel that spans generations of Indian caste history coming up to the 1970′s during India’s “State of Emergency”. The book creates such believable characters, of which the four main characters cover so much ground the book seems to have a job fitting it all in. A delve into the good and evil of India (and humanity, which India is such an incredible representation of) . From the crisp clean hill stations in the north to the squalid rat infested jhopadi slums of the cities where at times you can almost smell the spices as the author describes a street scene. An educational novel from one of humanities cornerstones. A true masterpiece.

- That was my first take on the book. I liked it. I liked it so much, I applied to be a giver on world book night and was awarded 48 copies to give away. Thats how it came to be in your possession. What did you think of it?

I wrote a blog about it all here with links to photos and my original post, here: bit.ly/enrpkS - I'd love it if you'd drop by and leave a comment!

This is such a powerful book, but I cannot give it a ten because its such a painful read. I learnt so much about the history and lives of many in India and felt passionately attached to the characters in the book. It stayed with me for weeks afterwards and was hard to shake, but in a disturbing way. I'm glad I read it, it is life changing, but I wouldn't want to read it again.