If You Are Afraid of Heights - A Novel
By Raj Kamal Jha
December 2004
Picador - Macmillan
ISBN: 0330427369
293 pages, 4 ¼" x 7"
$17.95 Paper Original
Written in the author's exquisitely crafted and beautiful, precise prose, this book offers a glimpse into a looking-glass world where nothing is quite what it seems and yet everything is strangely familiar. A man and a woman meet in a midnight road accident and fall in love.
A reporter arrives in a small town to uncover the story of a child's rape and murder. A young girl, shaken by a series of suicides in her neighborhood, worries for her parents' safety. Three seemingly separate stories, and yet interwoven themes and recurring motifs suggest a connection between the strands: a crow flying overhead, a skyscraper larger than any built before, a dog missing part of its tail, a news report… a girl in a red dress.
A novel that defies categorization, this book is about abuse, neglect, and the silence of secrets, but also about the power and possibilities of hope. The result is a breathtaking odyssey into the uncharted zone between fantasy and reality, a journey into worlds that might have been - or might yet be, perhaps…
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