Cruelty and tenderness, violence and retribution, loneliness and unexpected miracles of silent love play out in these stories set in semi-rural Assam. As the barriers between human beings and birds and animals fall away?and river, forest and moon breathe?solitary men and women, foresters, hunters, boatmen and awkward boys make connections with civets, sparrows, rhinos and elephants; leopards, snakes, horses and dogs. And sometimes with themselves. Deeply moving and humane, and equally gripping, this collection contains perhaps the finest fiction about the natural world?and our place in it?that you will read by a contemporary Indian writer.