India, March 7 -- The Rainbow Runners is a novel about violence, trauma, life and rediscovery. Sriman, the protagonist, is a bookish type with a squeamish disposition. The book stretches from the Brahmaputra plains in Assam, where people can be made to "disappear" without a trace, to the verdant Himalayan ranges where ochre-clad Buddhist monks and nuns roam, searching for wisdom and meaning.

The story begins on an evening that Sriman goes strolling along the sand banks of the Brahmaputra. He had loved to do this, feeling the soft sand on his feet, the evening breeze on his cheeks and his eyes set on the rapidly changing colours of the darkening sky. But on that evening, as he sat trance-like inside a sandpit soaking in the serene ambienc...