India: A Mosaic - Hardcover

When India detonated its first nuclear bomb in May 1998, people celebrated in the streets, denouncing Western culture and emptying gallons of Coke into the drains. In her introduction to India: A Mosaic Arundhati Roy, author of Booker winner The God Of Small Things, angrily attacks this twist in her country's history. The nuclear issue is tackled in more detail in an essay by novelist Pankaj Mishra

India: A Mosaic consists of nine heavy-weight essays by academics/novelists extracted from The New York Review Of Books. Politics and literature dominate. There's consistent criticism of the right wing, nationalistic "Hindu Chauvinism" that lead not just to the bomb and the re-naming of Bombay, but a rejection of Nehru and Gandhi's democracy, secularism and tolerance.

Pre-nuclear India had "less money, less food and smaller bombs," Arundhati Roy writes. "However, we have, or had, all kinds of other wealth. Delightful, Unquantifiable." While economically poor, India has been rich in art, philosophy and uniquely erudite literature. Several essays explore India¹s literary heritage. Most fascinating is Anita Desai's history of women's writing, from Buddhist nuns' songs in 80BC to radical 20th century poets branded prostitutes. Respect is paid to thinker/writer Rabindranath Tagore, while Hilary Mantel dissects the contemporary realism of Rohinton Mistry's Such A Long Journey.

India: A Mosaic is no breezy holiday read. It's a studious collection for those wanting to go deeper into India's identity. A free CD, worth the cover price in itself, provides 20 tasters--50s' film music, Islamic Sufi, Sikh devotional music, Indian classical, Bollywood and folk. Naturally it wouldn't be complete without some Ravi Shanka too. --Sarah Champion

Robert B. Silvers is co-editor of The New York Review of Books. Prior to joining the Review, Mr. Silvers was, from 1959 to 1963, associate editor of Harper's magazine, editor of the book Writing in America and translator of La Gangrene. Before that, Mr. Silvers lived in Paris for six years (1952 to 1958), where he served with the U.S. Army at SHAPE Headquarters and attended the Sorbonne and Ecole des Sciences Politiques. He joined the editorial board of The Paris Review in 1954 and became Paris editor in 1956. He also worked as press secretary to Governor Chester Bowles in 1950. Mr. Silvers, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947, was born in Mineola, New York.