Last Labyrinth

The Last Labyrinth is a splendid novel — serious, disturbing, lyrical and irresistibly readable, a fascinating exploration into the turbulent inner world of a successful urban India.Som Bhaskar is a millionaire-industrialist, married to a woman of his choice who has borne him two children, yet relentlessly driven by undefined hunger which he unsuccessfully seeks to satisfy by possession — of an object, a business enterprise, a woman. Much like Saul Bellow's Henderson he is always crying, 'I want, I want, I want.' His search taken him from Bombay to Benares, at once holy and repellent — with its narrow, dirty lanes, dancing girls and a mystical aura.Amidst this contrasting juxtaposition of locales, the novel explores the meaning of life and death, illusion and reality, desire and resignation.Here is an eternally contemporary theme with all its complexities; the story's spiritual and sensuous dimensions are interwoven with great finesse making this novel a rare, unforgettable treat.

Arun Joshi son of a botanist and an eminent educationists, was born in Varanasi and educated in India and the U.S. After getting his Masters degree from M.I.T, he returned to India to pursue a career in the corporate world. Yet writing remained his passion. In the five novels he wrote he spun out some of the most thought-provoking and outstanding fiction writing in the Indian literature.
The Last Labyrinth won him the Sahitya Akademi Award, Indias highest literary honour.