Dancing to the Flute
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Kalu picked up the flute by his side and started to play. The sound was deep and full, as if he were translating his thoughts into music. It stayed in the air like dust floating on the sunlight, and each note held the promise of something not quite spoken but maybe heard in the darkness of a dream.”
Abandoned as a young child, Kalu, a cheeky street kid, has carved out a life for himself in rural India. In the quiet village of Hastinapore, Kalu has also found friends: Bal, the solitary boy who tends the local buffaloes, and Malti, a gentle servant girl, who with her mistress, Ganga Ba, has watched over Kalu since he first wandered into the small town.
One day, perched high in the branches of a banyan tree, Kalu chooses a leaf, rolls it tightly, and as he’s done for as long as he can remember, blows through it. His pure, simple notes dance through the air and attract a traveling healer, whose interest will change Kalu’s life forever, setting him on a path he would never have dreamt possible and testing his belief in himself and his sense of identity.
Rich in texture and atmosphere, Dancing to the Flute is a heartwarming story of a community’s joys and sorrows, the transformative powers of music, the many faces of friendship, and a boy’s journey, against all odds, to become a man.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kalu, a young orphan in the fictional Indian village of Hastinapore, finds kindness among strangers who recognize his preternatural musical talent in Amin's debut novel. Eschewing the services of a drunken village doctor, Kalu is brought to a local healer for treatment of his potentially crippling foot condition. Instead of demanding a payment, the healer encourages Kalu to leave the village and study the flute under the healer's brother, who is an accomplished musician. Kalu agrees to leave, heading into the mountains to meet the guruji who will test his mettle and teach him proper technique. While Kalu possesses the potential to be great, his ability to harness the full breadth of his talent hinges on his reaction to tragedy. Amin weaves a lovely and subtle tale of music's power and magic, using elements of traditional raag forms as the basis for the novel's structure. Though primarily an uplifting tale, one in which Kalu makes for a charismatic protagonist despite himself, Amin provides an oft-unseen glimpse of the realities of life in contemporary rural India.
