A poetic novel by Quebec’s Yolande Villemaire, India, India chronicles an unfolding journey into the heart of contemporary India. When Montreal artist Miliana Tremblay is invited to exhibit in India, she plans an extended visit including a spiritual retreat led by the Dalai Lama. To help with her travel arrangements she contacts Dervish India Tours and is charmed by the company’s charismatic owner, Khayyal Khan. In the perplexing paradox that is contemporary India, Miliana is caught between love and fear and the colliding cultures of the First and Third worlds. Seeking solitude, she insists on travelling alone, but is poorly prepared for the realities of the colourful and sometimes maddening Sub-Continent. Khayyal Khan is also on a spiritual quest and offers friendship, but when travel arrangements go awry Miliana begins to question his integrity. Journey with Miliana, from South to North, from the Kalachakra retreat to the spice and sari markets, through the crowded streets of Delhi to the breathtaking marbles of the Taj Mahal where, in the end, love and beauty silence the unanswerable questions on this enchanting journey of discovery in the complex world of India today.

Yolande Villemaire has published more than twenty works of poetry and fiction including La vie en prose, Quartz et mica and Des petits fruits rouges. She is the author of Midnight Tides of Amsterdam, Poets and Centaurs and Little Red Berries, all available from Ekstasis Editions. Yolande Villemaire lives in Montreal.

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