River Sutra

2 cassettes / 3 hoursRead by the AuthorThe banks of the Narmada River are said to contain 400 billion sacred places. It is this river, the holiest in India, that is the setting for Gita Mehta's lushly imagined novel, which fuses the traditions of Indian narrative with thoroughly contemporary insights into the nature of love - love carnal and sublime, treacherous, maddening, and redeeming.Mehta's river is a place where travelers and their stories intersect unpredictably: where a millionaire mendicant comes to lay down the burden of his wealth; a sybaritic playboy wanders in a trance of erotic possessions; where an aging courtesan seeks her kidnapped daughter. Populated by bandits, naked ascetics, and ecstatic singers, A River Sutra is as intoxicating as the scent of sandal wood and as exalting as a classic raga.