AustLit

'In contemporary India on the eve of Diwali, a macaque monkey and a Pariah dog are poised to touch the lives of millions of people.

'The night that senior New Delhi Municipal Council official Pushpant Godboley falls to his death from a Hastinapuri Estate balcony after a bizarre monkey attack, ambitious reporter Sita Unival sniffs out more than just the unusual death of a bent bureaucrat. The hunt for a scoop leads her to a story powerful enough to make her the first female reporter-in-chief at the New Delhi Times.

'Kamla Nehru Ridge is the base camp for despotic monkey and civil servant killer Paksheet. He aims to rule the park, and the world beyond, by eradicating everything on two or four feet standing in his way. But Paksheet doesn’t count on domesticated Pariah dog Rocky. Recently abandoned, now wounded and alone on enemy turf, Rocky shares more than he realises with his Hollywood namesake.

'Poona Sheena is preparing for Diwali at Hastinapuri Estate, New Delhi’s premier boutique hotel. Poona is more than a brilliant businesswoman and born hostess. In her spare time she protects the Civil Lines native dog population from starvation and neglect with a one-woman crusade of food and medical services. Rocky evades her attempts at triage in the park, but unbeknown to Poona as she searches for him, he will be her only defender against a violent rapist.

'In the kitchen at Hastinapuri Estate, disgruntled cook Malina dreams of elevation from servitude via her only son, Geet – a party boy on the verge of flunking university. Through a cross continent chain of shady deals, Malina arranges a visa driven marriage between Geet and Lola Wedd, a young Sydney girl, to enable her son’s emigration and elevation to a white tiger in the land Down Under.

'Malina’s dreams, however, didn’t predict Geet being gay and fleeing to Bombay to be with his boyfriend before he ties the knot with unsuspecting Lola.

'Leaving behind a messy love affair with a tabla player, Lola naïvely thought she would ‘find herself’ in India. Instead, she is lost and alone in an escalating family drama, with her only ally a love-struck chauffeur and local 'fixer' called Baj.

'When Gaurav Kamboj, the errant son of a political dynasty, is hastily elevated to a replacement role in the New Delhi Municipal council, he declares a brutal eradication of the monkeys and dogs of New Delhi to punish his ex-wife and raise his own profile. In doing so, he ignites a series of events that lead to a Diwali more explosive than anyone in Civil Lines imagined.' (Publication summary)