Kimball O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, spends his
childhood on the bustling streets of Lahore, begging and running errands
in order to survive. One day he meets an old Tibetan lama, and he
decides to accompany him on his travels across the Indian Subcontinent.
After falling into the hands of his father's old regiment, however, Kim
is separated from the lama and sent away to school. There, his natural
flair for espionage is spotted, and he soon finds himself among the
majestic peaks of the Himalayas, playing a crucial part in the secret
service's confrontation with
Russia known as the "Great Game".
With its peerless evocation of the teeming cities, breathtaking
landscapes and diverse cultures of late-nineteenth-century India, Kim is
widely considered to be Kipling's masterpiece and one of the greatest
novels written in the English language.