Lena Abraham knows that love can end in only one way — disappointment. Her marriage to KK is perfect precisely because she is not in love with him, and their life on a tea plantation in the picturesque Anamalai Hills is idyllic. Then, one rainy morning, a man arrives to take up temporary residence in the homestay they run.

Shoola Pani is south Indian cinema’s heartthrob, an actor in flight from his own superstardom, and the last thing he is looking for is emotional entanglement. But when Lena and he meet, something flares between them that neither could have anticipated. She becomes his Lee and he her Ship, and Arcadia the place they inhabit.

Told partly from the point of view of Komathi, the cook, whose own relationship with Lena is fraught with buried truths from the past, this searing tale of unexpected passion and adultery reaffirms the magical power of love in all our lives.

About the Author

Anita Nair is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of the novels The Better Man, Ladies Coupé, Mistress, Lessons in Forgetting, Cut Like Wound and Idris. She has also published a collection of poems titled Malabar Mind, a collection of essays titled Goodnight & God Bless and five books for children. Anita has written two plays and the screenplay for the movie adaptation of her novel Lessons in Forgetting, which was part of the Indian Panorama at IFFI 2012 and won a National Film Award in 2013. She has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award and her books have been translated into over thirty languages around the world. She is also the founder of the creative writing and mentorship programme, Anita’s Attic.