'One of our best and most captivating novelists' Philip Hensher

A revered effigy of the god Shiva has gone missing from the Patna Hall Hotel on south India's exquisite Coromandel coast. Was it stolen, and to whom does it belong? Young lawyer Michael Dean, sent from London to argue the case for the defence, falls under the spell of Artemis, a graceful archaeologist who is staying at the hotel; but she proves as elusive as the mystery of the theft he is working on.

Rumer Godden's classic novel is a magical, evocative exploration of art, love, class and greed in her beloved India.