"LITTLE LANTERN, DEEP DARKNESS is truly a one-of-a-kind novel in which every word is a delight. Sit back, settle in, and bask in the glow of a master wordsmith." - Karen Dionne, author of the international bestseller THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER
Book I: The Light of Dead Fires
Himalayan foothills, 1934
Smastrus Anand - a fourteen-year-old, fatherless boy - understands what it is to live with sorrow in his heart. His mother, Nina, is a debt-slave, and Smast has been forced to grow up on a steady diet of hunger and oppression.
Pintu, the ultra-privileged son of Nina's employers, has always taken pleasure in abusing and bullying Smast. Life as Smast knows it changes forever one evening when he finally hits back at Pintu.
Smast's unthinkable act rips open a Pandora's box. Two things emerge from it: i.) a long-buried secret that devastates and strengthens Smast simultaneously, and ii.) the unwelcome attention of the enigmatic, ruthless woman responsible for destroying Smast's parents' lives before his birth.
This woman, Pintu's mother, would stop at nothing to crush the remnants of hope still surviving somewhere deep in Nina's shriveled heart - a hope that stems from and inheres in her only child.
Atmospheric, lyrical, and fast-paced, the first installment of Smast's epic tale chronicles his metamorphosis from a punching-bag to a fledgling, imperfect fighter struggling for his inalienable right to live and love on his own terms.
Book II: The Gullibility of Demons
Smast's cherished dream is finally coming true - he is going to the City of Gods! But Sona has withdrawn her protection from him, transforming him into a lamb thrown amongst hungry hyenas.
A sadistic prank by Pintu goes horribly wrong, scarring Smast's very soul, forcing him to run for his life. Battered and overwhelmed with grief, he somehow manages to reach the backstreet of a royal palace. From the moment he first sees the lovely, guilt-racked princess, PRAGVI SINGH, Smast's concept of 'self' vanishes absolutely - for him, everything will always be about Pragvi.
A demonic man is hellbent upon abducting Pragvi. Another, equally monstrous, man is guarding her with his life. Smast is about to get caught in a hellish crossfire that will make his previous misfortunes and perils appear childish in comparison.
Fast-moving, intense, and suspenseful, The Gullibility of Demons is as much a magical-realism sprinkled story of timeless love as it is an evocative, atmospheric psychological thriller.
Book III: The Ignorance of Knowers
Smast breaks prison and runs for his life after being accused of Bheekhu's murder. He reaches Letlive - a remote valley in the Himalayas.
Over three thousand years ago, Letlive was the secret hermitage of the divine sage Agastya - one of the original authors of the Vedas. Agastya established Letlive as a long-term repository for an ultra-secret, ultra-powerful manuscript, which confers incredible powers upon its chosen 'Knowers'. Smast is stunned to discover that he, too, is a Knower, perhaps the most significant, the most powerful one of all times!
Letlive is a heavenly place and Smast has arrived here after enduring hell all his life, but he must go back into the old, cruel, dangerous world for Pragvi, who matters infinitely more to him than his own self.
When he gets back to Devgarh, the metropolitan where he experienced both his greatest trauma and his greatest joy five years ago, history loops in on itself: he is once again ensnared in the evil, mysterious web that's been spun for Pragvi.
Nothing whatsoever - not unspeakable agony, not the certainty of losing his life - will deter Smast from taking on the enigmatic spider - Detya - which has been stalking Pragvi since before her birt
