"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso

"Jadunath Kunwar's beginnings are humble, even inauspicious. His mother, while pregnant, nearly dies from a cobra bite. And this is only the first of many challenges in store for Jadu. As his life skates between the mythical and the mundane, Jadu finds meaning in the most unexpected places. He becomes a historian. He has a daughter, Jugnu, who grows up to be a television journalist and then escapes her marriage for a career in the United States. And he sees currents of huge change sweep across India--from Independence to Partition, Gandhi to Modi, the Mahabharata to Somerset Maugham--in ways that Jadu is both apart from and can't help but represent"--