Mistress

A searing new novel of art and adultery from the best-selling author of Ladies Coupe

When travel writer Christopher Stewart arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala to meet Koman, Radha’s uncle and a famous kathakali dancer, he enters a world of masks and repressed emotions. From their first meeting, both Radha and her uncle are drawn to the enigmatic young man with his cello and his incessant questions about the past. The triangle quickly excludes Shyam, Radha’s husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. Also playing the role of observer-participant is Koman; his life story, as it unfolds, captures all the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made-and unmade-in front of his eyes.

A brilliant blend of imaginative story-telling and deeply moving explorations into the search for meaning in art and life, Mistress is a literary tour de force from one of India’s most exciting writers.

‘‘ ‘Scintillating and absorbing’ —Deccan Herald‘Brilliant language sparkling with extraordinary intelligence… Different strands of narrative, woven with rare dexterity, over different time-periods, serve to engage the reader at many levels of sensitivity. Such accomplished portraiture . . . is hard to find’ —Sahara Time‘Nair evokes in her readers wonder, delight and grief. She writes about man-woman relationships and complex Kathakali aesthetics with equal felicity. When you put down the novel, you feel as if you are walking back home in the pale early morning light at the end of a nightlong Kathakali performance.’ —Hindu