Nine Lives [Paperback]

William Dalrymple (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury UK (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1408801531
• ISBN-13: 978-1408801536
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,528,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indian spirituality, December 10, 2009

By 

rmsai (Puttaparthi India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nine Lives (Kindle Edition)

The Bangalore bookshops are prominently showing this book and having read William Dalrymple before and liked his scholarship and easy style I bought it. I wasn't disappointed, in fact i hated to see the book come to an end. The common theme of heartfelt devotion is told simply and openly through nine diverse and extraordinary lives. You feel that each one is a person you've come to know and like. I am an American living in South India and this book helps me appreciate living here even more. It helps me appreciate William Dalyrmple even more too. He writes wonderful books!

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wondrous "read" about good people whom most of us will never otherwise hear., June 24, 2010

By 

webwiz99 "DFR" (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (Hardcover)

Highly interesting, wonderfully researched, beautifully written, as are all of this author's works.

A main question seems to be whether often-isolated, syncretistic, devotional religious practices will continue in the face of India's burgeoning economy and, presumably, growing secularism and consumerism, on the one hand, and the exclusionary fanaticism of a militant segment of Hindus and Muslims, on the other. While much will be gained by greater educational opportunity and a higher/healthier standard of living for the rural and urban poor and powerless, rich, curious, sometimes bizarre religious practices in the name of the gods will probably fade away.

This book is not about mainstream religious practices or faiths of the great religions --- or even of "smaller traditions" that have gained acceptance, if not understanding, because of their great age. The `Sacred" referred to in the title are approaches to gods/God that are, for all the integrity of those interviewed who practice them, mightily strange.

The book certainly shows that devout, faithful approaches to belief are common to all levels of people and a belief in a "greater power" is sustaining in the most difficult of situations. The book is a wondrous "read" about good people whom most of us will never otherwise hear.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, June 26, 2010

By 

Author Nova - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (Hardcover)

Elegant and occasionally nostalgic William Dalrymple has written a beautiful and insightful book on the hidden India, a country at once capitalist and modern but also still spiritual and unique. Dalrymple said that the idea for this book was born 16 years ago in 1993 when he was corkscrewing up a Himalayan trail. He does not identify when his interviews took place. It is therefore difficult to envisage when and how India's traditional forms of religious life have been transformed in the vortex of the region's rapid change. I have always liked Dalrymple's books as he has always been fantastic through his well researched writings. Nine Lives isn't just another travel book. It's a window to contemporary India - the one that remains forgotten or hidden, but is very much out there on the road, quite literally. As Dalrymple puts it, "The water moves on, a little faster than before, yet still the great river flows. It is as fluid and unpredictable in its moods as it has ever been, but it meanders within familiar banks."