THE ARSONIST

‘If you had to choose between a woman you loved and God, who would you choose?’ and the weaver said, ‘the woman. Is there any doubt about that?’ and the Mullah asked him, ‘if you had to choose between a Song and God, what would you pick?’ and the weaver said, ‘the song, of course.’ and the priest from the temple asked him, ‘weaver, if perforce you had to choose one or the other, a beautiful sunset or God, what would your choice be?’ and he said, ‘isn’t it obvious? The sunset.’ in this inspired, profoundly imaginative telling of Kabir’s life, acclaimed novelist Kiran Nagarkar places the mystic saint in a world which might be modern or ancient, but where the battles between religions remain as charged and central as ever. The weaver is a shocking, iconoclastic rebel in this version, a man with more questions than answers and with a wisdom shorn of any ego. Searching, urgent and deeply important, the arsonist is a book of our times, one that turns Kabir into our contemporary.