The Earthspinner

Anuradha Roy

 

'A horse was in flames. It roamed beneath the ocean breathing fire . . .'

From the critically acclaimed, Booker Prize-nominated author of Sleeping on Jupiter and All the Lives We Never Lived, comes an incisive and moving novel about the struggle for creative achievement in a world consumed by growing fanaticism and political upheaval.

One night, Elango has a dream that consumes him, driving him to give it shape. The potter is determined to create a giant terracotta horse whose beauty will be reason enough for its existence. Yet he cannot pin down from where it has galloped into his mind, nor can he say where it belongs – in a temple compound, within a hotel lobby, or with Zohra, whom he despairs of ever marrying. 

The astral, indefinable force driving Elango towards forbidden love and creation has unleashed other currents. A neighbourhood girl develops a complicated relationship with him. A lost dog adopts him. Meanwhile, his community is driven by inflammatory passions of a different kind. Here, people, animals, and even the gods live on a knife-edge and the consequences of daring to dream against the tide are cataclysmic.