The Independent - London, July 19th, 1997
If Amrita was set in Surrey, no one would give a damn. Thank heavens for tatami mats, bamboo blinds and the smell of cooking prawns, because without such automatic triggers, devoid of the rubber stamp of coolness currently bestowed by all things Japanese, Amrita would seem banal for a western audience, to the point of mystification.
As the author writes in her Afterword, "Now as I read over this novel I realise how naive it is . . . The theme of this book is simple. I want to express the idea that regardless of all the amazing events that happen to each of us, there will always be the never-e...
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