Ashok Sharma

Stone Gods & Naked Lovers Ashok Sharma

The setting of Stone Gods & Naked Lovers is in the magical landscape of a fictional city called Narkanda near the east coast of India, famous for its erotic temple sculptures as well as growing reputation as a hi-tech center. The main protagonist is Rahul Adam born out of a secret love affair between an American nurse Ruth Adam and a Catholic Missionary priest Father Mark Wayne Thomas of the Mission of Sacred Souls in Narkanda. Rahul Adam who spent first five years of his life as an orphan at the Mission returns quarter of a century later as the general manager of a multinational American Power Corporation (APC) that is establishing a power plant project in India. While searching for his roots and the priest, Rahul falls in love with an Indian woman reporter Rohini Rao who is being hunted herself and is on the run. Later on, he learns that the renegade priest had left the church long time ago and became the founder of a cult called the Lotus Eaters. The climax of this book takes place in a coastal town where body of the dead priest was being preserved by his followers in the belief that as promised, he would come back to life with the first Monsoon rain (and he almost does). The central motif of this book is Rahul Adam's search for his father and a doomed love affair with the Indian magazine reporter Rohini Rao. Story background includes some interesting Moslem characters, violence against Christians in India, and mass suicide of poor farmers in the drought stricken region. The book with strong plotting of a suspense novel is about search for identity, corrupt power politics, love, monsoon, rain and death.