I have just finished The Only Life. It is fantastically good!

Huge congratulations. I am full of admiration for what you have accomplished. I have only the slightest inklings of the time and energy you put into the book – the travelling and collecting, the meeting and deciding, the writing and editing – but it is clearly an act of devotion and an expression of love, as well as a gripping story and an enormously enjoyable read.

Knowing you a little, and your writing style a little, too, from what I have read, I would also like to say it is really a hollow bamboo of a book. Rarely does Rashid make his presence known. He has taken a back seat in the unfolding of this beautiful story. And when he does take the wheel, it is totally appropriate, adding the personal and the context when it is needed.

And God knows what politics entered the arena as you wrote and prepared the manuscript, but you have side-stepped all that and produced a pure Laxmi-centered, Laxmi-loving book. I am so excited to have it in my hands and be able to tell everyone I see to get it.

Now I wish for great success and many many readers, and wonder if there are plans for S&S to do a US/UK version, or at least market it beyond India.