'If you buy one literary novel this year, make sure it's this' The Times ' The Romantics looks to Flaubert's Sentimental Education , to E.M. Forster, to Turgenev. But it is the product of a distinctive and sharp intelligence' Hilary Mantel 'Grips the reader as artfully and as compellingly as the first page of A Passage to India ' The New York Review of Books WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION _____________________ 1989. In the holy city of Varanasi, 19-year-old Samar rents a room to avoid a small-town job and lose himself in reading about worlds outside of India. But when he is thrust into local a circle of privileged European and American expats, led by the charismatic Miss West, Samar will soon face his own silent desires and crumbling beliefs. _____________________ 'A work of art' Financial Times 'A supernova' The Washington Post 'A charming debut' The Independent.