Ka

Praise

“Passage[s] of such ecstatic insight and cross-cultural synthesis–simply, of such beauty.”  
—The New York Review of Books

“The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written…A magnificent reading of Hindu texts. Its power arises in part through strong, vivid writing and in part through stunning, unexpected metaphors.”
–Wendy Doniger, The New Republic

“Magnificent…A moving, exhillarating, extraordinary book…An astonishing synthesis of myths and legends, philosophical inquiry, and speculative narrative”
–Shashi Tharoor, Washington Post Book World

“A scintillatingly challenging book…Its opening sentences are as startling as any in all of literature.”
–Thomas McGonigle, Los Angeles Times

“All is spectacle and delight, and -tiny mirrors reflecting human foibles are set into the weave, turning this retelling into the stuff of literature…Calasso’s erudition and his capacity for invention appear to be limitless.”        
—The New Yorker

“To read Ka is to experience a giddy invasion of stories–brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful.”
–Sunil Khilnani, New York Times Book Review

“Calasso has certainly managed to open a new road through the old landscape of literature.”
–John Banville, New York Review of Books

“So brilliant that you can’t look at it anymore–and you can’t look at anything else. . . . No one will read it without reward.” 
—The Boston Globe

“A buoyant, expansive narrative that captures, with earthy vigor, scrupulous scholarship, and epic breadth, the Indian cultural ethos.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“This riveting performance (rendered beautifully into English by Tim Parks) is the fruit of a union
between serious scholarship and a mercurial imagination.”
–Donna Seaman, Booklist