New Delhi, Nov. 16 -- Hindi writer Udayan Vajpeyi is best known as a poet. Occasionally he has published short stories and essays but Qayas, recently translated by Poonam Saxena as Love is Participation in Eternity, is his only novel so far.

The lyrical, if somewhat awkward, title aside, it is evident from its opening pages that this is a poet's novel. Written in spare, tightly controlled prose, the story unfolds through vignettes, mostly in the form of internal monologues by characters who step in and out of the narrative. There is a semblance of a plot centred around a murder, but it isn't the crux of Vajpeyi's focus. Instead, his gaze is turned inward, on the secret lives of men and women, the desires they harbour and the unseen force...