Amitav Ghosh's extraordinary first novel makes a claim on literary turf
held by Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie. In a vivid and
magical story, The Circle of Reason traces the misadventures of Alu, a
young master weaver in a small Bengali village who is falsely accused of
terrorism. Alu flees his home, traveling through Bombay to the Persian
Gulf to North Africa with a bird-watching policeman in pursuit. "A
remarkable storyteller, a Scheherezade effortlessly spinning tales
within tales, the possessor of a strong narrative voice quite like no
other." -- Newsday "Ghosh's writing soars, producing electric images."
-- Baltimore Sun