“Singular and unforgettable, Ruskin Bond’s new collection shows us once again why he is the country’s most addictive writer.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
The mist blows here and there obscuring the vision. People think they see things but have they really seen anything at all? Bond revisits his favourite tales from the Himalayas in this collection of stories that span places at the back of the North Wind and man-eaters.
Bond plays hide and seek with the reader’s imagination, a panther slinking through the shadows and the moonlight, a murderer in the fog – he has a new murder story in this collection set in a hotel, as many of his murder stories are.
He also recounts his stay in Fosterganj a nowhere place inhabited by a descendant of Bonne Prince Charlie who distills whisky and frequented by eccentrics and the sometimes scary. Fosterganj, in fact, is almost novella as Bond wanders through its hills and dales. There are also stories of abandoned single ladies with broken hearts and fortunes tucked away in hillside cottages.
All the tales have Bond’s touch of empathy for people and animals and his love of nature. Hidden story gems unveiled as the mist blows away.
Reviewed by:
Anjana Basu
Added 6th March 2020
