In the misty mountains of Darjeeling, a landslide traps the guests and staff of a dilapidated hotel. Cooped up inside, two men embark on a chance affair. For Neville, this is one of many exhilarating encounters, stolen kisses in stairways and parked cars. But for quiet, cautious Pavan, whose job at the hotel is a lifeline, their entanglement is a bittersweet collision of shame and desire with unforgettable consequences.
Four years later, their paths unexpectedly cross again in Mumbai. Neville's love life is still being played out in the shadows, but he's become restless, looking for something more than the naked torsos blowing up his phone and parties after dark. When he glimpses Pavan working behind a hotel reception - handsome as ever, but now agonisingly aloof - the secrets of their fateful time together threaten to emerge into the light.
This is a poignant, surprising and wryly funny novel, a story of obsession and forbidden yearning, taking place in the years leading up to India's decriminalisation of homosexuality in 2018.
- ISBN10 1805337890
- ISBN13 9781805337898
- Publish Date 11 September 2025
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pushkin Press
- Imprint ONE
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English