Book Description
For Kim, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, India is an exotic, richly coloured, magical land with an exciting array of landscapes, people and cultures. From life as a street vagabond in Lahore, to companion and devotee of an old Tibetan lama, Kim learns to find a new vision amid the kaleidoscopic scenes before him, a vision that unites, not divides, and promotes harmony not discord. Kim is a masterly novel from an expert craftsman and presents an enduring and powerful portrait of India under the Raj. AUTHBIO: Born in Bombay in 1865, Rudyard Kipling retained a deep love for the colour and exotic richness of India throughout his life and this passion affected much of his writing. Best known for his masterpieces The Jungle Books, Kim, and Captains Courageous, Kipling also penned an extraordinary number of powerful and evocative poems and short stories including the remarkable Just So Stories. The first Englishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Kipling commands a place amongst the finest of English writers.
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Synopsis
Kipling's epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Two men - Kim, a boy growing into early manhood and the lama, an old ascetic priest - are fired by a quest. Kim is white, a sahib, although born in India. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama and he tries to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life. A celebration of their friendship in an often hostile environment, Kim captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the