In a city levitating among the clouds, a translator of ancient languages
casts his mind down to the surface of a long uninhabited earth and six
thousand years into the past to tell the tale of Asha, a possibly
mythical, possibly factual princess, or Raajakumaaree in the language of
her era. Asha's life of beauty and privilege, the compensation for
marriage to an abusive merchant prince, ultimately sets her on an epic
yaatra, a trek of body and mind, to seek self-knowledge. Along the way
she must imagine a path beyond the totality of her past mistakes--before
hope itself comes to an end. A novel of fantasy, spiritual exploration,
and adventure, Asha Of The Air interweaves European chivalric tradition
with the mysticism of South Asia's sacred texts to craft an immersive
world where legend and science, history and myth come together in a tale
of intense emotionality. Asha's story is that of a young woman trying to
conceive a new female archetype for herself, one that transcends the
norms of gender and wedlock while still embracing all the rightful
powers of femininity. It is strikingly relevant to the way that today we
are renegotiating the balance of power between the sexes and learning
how to reconcile the urge to dominate with the need to love.
