I.Allan Sealy

Somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas is a town called Drummondganj, where time is measured solely by the seasons. There, on the roof of a crumbling mansion lives a 90-year-old former mountaineer with a wandering mind. The mansion, once the Hotel Everest, is now a shelter run by an order of nuns who also look after the old man- Immanuel Jed- and a motley crew of others.

Ritu, the newest nun, arrives at Everest when the town is in the midst of a political upheaval- the struggle for statehood so familiar in the Indian milieu. That’s not all the upheaval either: Ritu bears a resemblance to Jed’s late wife, and this causes the old man’s mind to come further unhinged. (However, Jed’s mental wanderings are erratic; some days, he is lucid, a great raconteur and quite a wit.) Then there is his young friend Brij, who is a part of the statehood struggle, and who visits him often. And who, on the roof of Everest, among Jed’s bathtubs and other paraphernalia, begins a doomed attraction to the young nun.

The rhythm of life at Everest is then further rippled by the arrival of a young German tourist, Inge, who is on a unique quest- to unearth the history of a dead uncle, a former poet who is buried in the cemetery adjoining Everest. Inge is the fulcrum of the story in some ways. Her mysterious, drug-fueled passions, her abrupt German sense of observation, and her skill at sculpting a new gravestone for her uncle, all intrigue and disturb Everest in ways deeper than the inhabitants realize.

Full review at http://devikamenon.blogspot.com/2011/05/readings-everest-hotel-by-allan-sealy.ht...… (more)