Late in this quietly mesmerizing novel, set in a Himalayan hill town in the north of India, Anuradha Roy describes the crystalline beauty of the peaks in winter, viewed long after the haze of the summer months and the fog of the monsoon, held in secret for those who choose to brave the cold: "After the last of the daylight is gone, at dusk, the peaks still glimmer in the slow-growing darkness as if jagged pieces of the moon had dropped from sky to earth." In the mountains, one of Roy's characters observes, "love must be tested by adversity." It's the inherent conflict in human attraction - the inescapable fact that all people remain at heart unknown, even to those closest to them - that forms the spine of the novel. In marrying a Christian, the narrator, Maya, has become estranged from her wealthy family in Hyderabad. But after six happy years together, her husband has died in a mountaineering accident. Rather than return to her parents, she seeks refuge in Ranikhet, a town that looks toward the mountains that so entranced her husband. Overcome with grief, she stows away his backpack, recovered from the scene of the accident, and refuses to inspect its contents. She can't bear to know the details surrounding his death. In Ranikhet, Maya settles into a routine: teaching at a Christian school; spending time with her landlord, Diwan Sahib; and observing the sometimes comic rhythms of the village and its army garrison. Roy manages to capture both the absurd and the sinister in even minor characters, like a corrupt local official who embarks on a beautification plan that includes posting exhortatory signs around town. (One, meant to welcome trekkers, is vandalized to read "Streaking route") His crusade, inspired by the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who embraced caning as a punishment, also includes the persecution of a simpleminded but harmless herder. Of course, a sedate world exists only to be shaken, and soon enough the town is disturbed from all sides. An election brings issues of religion to the fore, threatening to stir sectarian violence. Curious military maneuvers prompt rumors of Chinese spies and fears, of a border conflict with Pakistan. Diwan Sahib's nephew, Veer, a mountaineering guide, moves into the elderly man's villa, and Maya finds herself drawn to him, despite the bad habits he encourages in his uncle and, more alarmingly, his tendency to disappear without warning. While there are scenes of tension 'and intrigue - a political goon attacks a young girl, Veer's work in the mountains starts to appear suspicious - the novel's mood remains elegiac rather than fraught, expressed through small tragedies like the burning of a valuable manuscript or the death of a beloved deer. Roy is particularly adept at mining the emotional intricacies of the relationship between Maya and Diwan Sahib, which also serves to symbolize India's uneasy passage from tradition to modernity. The novel's one weakness is its culminating revelation (and its consequences), which feels strangely insignificant, as if Roy couldn't bring herself to commit to the more outrageous implications she has set in motion. "If you told a stranger that there are actually big snow peaks where that sky is," a character notes of a day when the Himalayas are shrouded in clouds, "would he believe you? . . . But you and I know the peaks are there. We are surrounded by things we don't know and can't understand." Perhaps Roy prefers to keep the heights of her story, like those mountaintops, shrouded in mystery. Andrea Thompson is a freelance writer and editor.

Roy's second book, which won the 2011 Hindu Literary Prize, is set in a modern India superimposed with a patina of benign nostalgia for the Raj. Widowed early and unable to escape memories of her dead husband, Maya finds a job as a teacher and factory supervisor at a Christian school in Ranikhet. Although she meets new people, memories of the past occupy her thoughts, especially when she is drawn into the romance of a local girl and a cook who moves with his employer to another town. Even a possible new romance cannot break the hold of her old life when surrounded by people for whom the past and present are equally significant. VERDICT The narrative is lyrical and languid and is well served by Sneha Mathan, an AudioFile Earphones Award recipient. Each of the numerous characters has a different timbre and accent, making them distinct. Recommend to fans of E.M. Forster, Paul Scott, and other writers of modern Indian fiction.-Susanne B. Roush, Seminole, FL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In the Himalayas of northern India, Maya-whose husband recently died in a mountain-climbing accident-travels to the small town of Ranikhet to assume a teaching position and find solace. There she begins to teach a peasant named Charu to read and write-an effort to help the young girl secretly communicate with her lover, a cook employed in Delhi. But Maya's efforts to find peace are quickly disrupted-by her past, an unexpected love affair, local politics, and sectarian violence. This audio edition is skillfully performed by Sneha Mathan, whose narration is crisp, engaging, and even slightly soothing. She creates a host of unique voices for the book's characters, employing appropriate accents and dialects, deepening her voice for male characters, and ably capturing the essence of the diverse cast. A Free Press paperback. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.