The taste of water: A Novel

by Franky Dias

A different India, a surprising India, and a refreshing India. Utterly original. A rare and authentic slice of life in the villages around Mangalore—one that should be preserved in a time capsule.
- Richard Crasta, author of The Revised Kama Sutra

 

Interviews with the author

"East Meets West in Franky Dias’ The Taste of Water"
"Carve Out a Good Life and Feed the Spirit"

Book Reviews

Mayank Bhatt's review on Generally About Books

 

The Taste of Water weaves history, folklore, humour, irreverence and adventure on two continents in a sweeping story spanning three generations set against the backdrop of Indian mythology and Western philosophy.

Victor and Shambu, two young boys mesmerized by a performing cyclist in their sleepy village of Uppal, South India, hatch a mischievous plan to prevent his macabre live burial finale—the first of many collaborations in their lifelong struggles with ambition and success, lust and love, power and impotence, and sin and redemption.

Victor achieves success as a telecom analyst in Toronto and New York City during the dot-com boom. His spectacular rise to fortune is matched only by his painful fall into excess and depravity. Shambu becomes a feared man in the underworld, selling cheap government booze. But his success, too, comes at a price.

Along the way we meet Rama Rao, a Brahmin storyteller and exorcist who plays chess with malevolent demons; Meena Rai, whose husband kills her lover then remains locked up in their house for decades until convinced to leave his room to murder again; the Alvares sisters, devout spinster twins who strip naked to scare away ghosts and later engage in nocturnal activities with one; Girija Bhandari, a young mother who cures inflamed eyes with jets of fresh milk from her breasts; and Zuao Manuel De Souza, famous for vanquishing a demon with the power of his rosary.

By turns magical and mystical, tragic and triumphant, The Taste of Water tells an unforgettable tale.

 

 

About the Author

"A Spectral Sword Fight, the Alvares Spinsters, Dukor Dorju and Silent Salvador"

"Soliloquoy of Grace"


Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Dias, Franky
The taste of water: a novel / Franky Dias.
Publisher: Life Rattle Press, Toronto 2012
New Writers Series, ISSN 1200-5266

ISBN: 978-1-927023-33-4

I. Title. II. Series: Life Rattle new writers series

PS8607.I27T37 2012    C813'.6   C2012-907402-0