The Hero's Walk, by Anita Rau Badami (Used)

Sripathi Rao's life is as arid as the dusty South Indian town where he lives. All he ever wanted was an ordinary life with a solid job and a happy family. But Sripathi has never been a lucky man.

Now ageing and disenchanted, struggling to keep his job, Sripathi lives in the crumbling ancestral house with his lonely spinster sister, embittered mother, and a wife and son he hardly knows anymore. His only joy is his talented, vibrant daughter Maya.

But when Maya marries Alan, a fellow student at her American university, Sripathi angrily cuts her off, until he receives a phone call from Vancouver informing him that Maya and her husband have been killed in a car crash. All Sripathi is left with are his regrets, and Maya's seven-year-old daughter, Nandana. Confused and scared, little Nandana must move to India, and adjust to life with the family she has never met before.

‘Outstanding ... a dazzling portrait of loss ... far superior to Rushdie or Vikram Seth' Irish Times

'A wise and affectionate portrait, sticky with domestic detail ... elegantly written' Independent

'A bittersweet tale dealing with the conflict within families and the heartrending effects of death' Scotland on Sunday

'Moving and thought-provoking ... a powerful journey through the minefields of the human heart. Don't miss it' Glamour

'Witty, subtle and beautifully wrought ... Badami will be a major force in world literature' Sunday Herald

Condition: excellent (pages slightly yellowed)