When travel writer Christopher Stewart arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala, India to meet Koman, Radha's uncle and a famous dancer, he enters a world of masks and repressed emotions. From their first meeting, both Radha and her uncle are drawn to the enigmatic young man with his cello and his incessant questions about the past. The triangle quickly excludes Shyam, Radha's husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. Also playing the role of observer-participant is Koman; his life story, as it unfolds, captures all the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made-and unmade-in front of his eyes.
Booklist calls Mistress "Tempestuously exotic, Nair's intricately woven multicultural and multigenerational saga pulsates with passion and desire."
"Tempestuously exotic, Nair's intricately woven multicultural and multigenerational saga pulsates with passion and desire."
Booklist
"This intricately plotted novel by Nair (Ladies Coupé), her third to be published in the United States, blends myth, history, and human emotion into a mixture as sweet as the nectar of the jackfruit and as tangled as human behavior . . . Highly recommended."
Library Journal, starred review
"Nair is a powerful writer, who through this tender story shows great understanding and compassion for women and for the choices and regrets they cannot avoid."
