A collection of written snapshots from the lives of three central characters, Delahunt’s novel is built around the gas leak that killed thousands in Bhopal, India, in 1984. The powerful pictures taken of the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster inspire Francoise to pursue a career in photography. Fleeing the demise of an eight-year relationship, she travels to Delhi, where she stays with a family who once employed Naga, a Tibetan refugee, as a houseboy. Naga fled the night of the Bhopal tragedy, and the family hasn’t heard from him since. Francoise eventually journeys to Bhopal to take up a photographic residency and finds Naga, who is now a Buddhist monk. Through him she meets Arkay, a damaged Scotsman who, after years of wandering, found a purpose to his life once he became a monk. Piercing character studies mix with evocative, powerful prose to create a vivid picture of three people trying to make sense of their lives, and find ways to break down the walls they have built up around themselves. --Kristine Huntley
Review
'This colourful account of life in India is a joy ... It's finely wrought and expansive fiction that lingers' Herald 'There is much rich material here ... the story of Francoise's love for Arkay, the monk ... is written with intensity and powerful despair' Kamila Shamsie, Guardian '[An] exploration of the human desire to shed past lives ... Vivid, wise, ambitious and beautiful' The List 'Blessed with ambition and talent enough to realise it, The Red Book is a model of what a globalised imagination can do' Sunday Herald
