In a dingy shack in the less-than-desirable Indian neighborhood he calls home, twelve-year-old Anand is entrusted with a conch shell that possesses mystical powers. His task is to return the shell to its rightful home many hundreds of miles away. Accompanying him are Nisha, a headstrong but resourceful child of the streets, and a mysterious man of indeterminate age and surprising resources named Abadhyatta. His quest will take him farther from home than he's ever been and will teach him more than he ever imagined – and it will force him to make a poignant decision that will change him forever.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Chitralekha Banerjee, born 1957) is an Indian-American author and poet. She is also the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the nationally-ranked University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
