and "A magnificent debut, smart and intense, but accessible and riveting...simply a great novel. and " - Booklist (starred review)When the tragic death of his son compels Dr. Neil Downs to flee New York City for India, he takes a job as the resident physician at the American Embassy, where he is introduced to the paradoxes of Indian social and political life. Unable to mourn, and angry about a betrayal by his wife, Sarah, Neil seeks philosophical refuge in the writings of Levi Furstenblum, whose work grapples with the nature of language and god after the Holocaust. As Neil experiences the interplay between the external and internal, foreign and domestic, the promises of faith and the ineluctability of evil, he slowly unravels the lies and misrepresentations that had woven the texture of his life.