Robert O'Brien flees his failed suburban life in 1960's Australia, to sail away to Europe with a friend. On the ship he meets a Latvian immigrant, and falls in love; the journey changes, and O'Brien and Ilsa wander through the stifling heat of India. It's a novel about lost youth and lost chances, filled with Koch's lush descriptions of Asian life.

A lot of the descriptions anticipate those in _The Year of Living Dangerously_ - the horrible poverty of Indian cities and the painful lives of the people who live on its streets, the ominous presence of Asian gods and goddesses. It's nightmarish and intoxicating at once.

O'Brien's arbitrary cruelty towards Ilsa makes him an unlikable character, but not an unsympathetic one. By novel's end I wanted to punch him, but I also found him pitiful. ( )