Psychic Wallah - In a Charmed Circle (Hardcover)

This novel has been described as 'Tom Sharpe but with inside knowledge'. In rational, urbane Cambridge, a young History don finds himself forced to consider the possibility that he is being 'got at' by witchcraft. In desperation, he turns to rational colleagues, to sympathetic family, psychiatrists, liberal clergy and wild Pentecostals -- only to find his best help is a young Asian student, whose culture accepts such bizarre afflictions as normal, everyday occurrences. Together, they journey to India in search of healing only to find that in that beautiful and humane world they still cannot escape dark powers. Written in diary form, frank, intimate and outrageous, the novel offers a hilarious satire on modern morals and mores, on the clash between East and West, on stuffy academic establishments and a hidebound scientific materialism. But it is also deeply appreciative of the beauties and contradictions of modern India: a celebration of cultural meeting.