The Cripple and His Talismans

A Novel

This “brilliant” fable about a boy who wakes up in India mysteriously missing an arm “radiates with the energy of Bombay” (The Globe and Mail, Toronto).
 
The narrator wakes up and discovers he is missing an arm. He has no idea how he lost it or how to find it—but as he searches the chaotic, often surreal streets of Bombay, he meets an absurd and marvelous cast of characters who offer him clues: a woman selling rainbows, a beggar living under an egg cart, a coffin maker who builds finger-size caskets, a giant who lives underwater, a homeless boy riding the rails. They all lead him to Baba Rakhu, master of the underworld, who will reveal the story of his lost arm—for a price.
 
“A highly imaginative novel, full of humour, poetry, and insights, written in a beautiful, spare style. Throughout the narrative looms a great city, Bombay, crazily reflected in the life of one of its inhabitants who, by means baffling, heinous, desperate and often very funny, seeks to embrace the divine with both arms.” —Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi