Arctic Summer

“Arctic Summer” is probably one of those books which are rarely written these days and the ones that should be written more of. It is about the life of a writer and writing. The book is about the lost years (in a way) of E.M. Forster and what led him to write, “A Passage to India”. It is about love – a love which cannot be named, a love that drove Forster to India time and again; a love he felt for another man, Syed Masood Ross and how that changed his life.

The writing is brilliant. Every page shines with the beauty of language, the crispness and brevity of prose and research well done about the author. Forster comes alive in these pages like perhaps in no other book you must have read about him. The fictionalized account also helps. Galgut’s writing is brave and experimental and that is what makes the book such a stunner of a read.

Two times Booker shortlisted writer Damon Galgut intensely educes E. M. Foster’s life and his travel to India, where he found inspiration and an eerie liberation.