An enjoyable long tale in the Amitav Ghosh shaggy dog style, of the life and pursuit by the law of a poor but expert weaver in India. Circumstances find him caught up in a radical bomb-maker’s exploit, causing him to be pursued across India, then by migrant boat and on to the Middle East with extraordinary adventures along the way. Their escape from India is led by a huge materteral (which I find is the female equivalent of avuncular) driving force of a woman called Zindi and the pursuer is a humane young policeman with an obsession for bird watching. The book progresses through a somewhat Butch Cassidy pursuit story. The pace is relentless and continually engrossing. As usual with this author (The Glass Palace, Sea of Poppies trilogy et al) every element of this tale and its many digressions is immaculately researched, mixing fact and fiction and locality with faultless precision, some pathos, and laugh-out-loud humour. Great fun.
