Afterwards

Winner of the Prix Medici Etranger Award. Following the form of the raga in Indian classical music, Amitav Ghosh slowly builds the tempo of The Circle of Reason. The first part spans several decades, the second unfolds over a few weeks, and the third, like a scherzo, races through a day. Ghosh’s debut novel centers on Alu, an orphan enlisted by his foster father as a soldier in his crusade against the forces of myth and unreason.