<p><b>WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR</b><br><br><b>''If you buy one literary novel this year, make sure it''s this''</b><i>THE TIMES</i><br><b>''</b><b><i>The Romantics</i></b><b> looks to Flaubert''s </b><b><i>Sentimental Education</i></b><b>, to E.M. Forster, to Turgenev. But it is the product of a distinctive and sharp intelligence''</b> HILARY MANTEL <br><b>''Grips the reader as artfully and as compellingly as the first page of </b><b><i>A Passage to India</i></b><b>'' </b><i>THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS</i><br><br><b>WINNER OF THE <i>LOS ANGELES TIMES</i> ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION</b><br><br>1989. In the holy city of Varanasi, 19-year-old Samar rents a room to avoid a small-town job and lose himself in reading about worlds outside of India. But when he is thrust into local a circle of privileged European and American expats, led by the charismatic Miss West, Samar will soon face his own silent desires and crumbling beliefs.<br><br><b>''A work of art''</b><i>Fin