Leela - alluring, taciturn, haunted - is moving back to Delhi after years of exile in New York. She knows her return will disrupt precariously balanced lives. Twenty years ago her sister Meera died, taking a devastating secret with her. Now, as the family gathers for a wedding, Leela must sift truth from fiction. Meanwhile the bride's father plots political conquest, the groom realises that he has fallen in love with his brother-in-law to be, and Ganesh - elephant-headed god and scribe of India's great epic, the Mahabharata - claims both Leela and the novel as his own creation. Brilliantly playful and entertaining, Leela's Book weaves a poignant tale of contemporary life in an ancient city. 'Albinia skilfully manages an intricate plot and an enormous, diverse cast of characters. Her immense historical acumen and sophisticated sense of culture have enabled her to craft a powerful tale' Guardian 'Steeped in the tradition of the Indian epic, yet modern and vastly entertaining' The Times 'Bold, playful, smart and lively' Time Out 'Ambitious, skilfully plotted, and full of wonderful surprises.

I was hooked from the very first page' Tahmima Anam, author of A Golden Age 'A compelling tale that weaves together the profound and the playful, the modern and the traditional, the secular and the mythological - all the strands that make up today's India' Manil Suri author of The Age of Shiva.