An Indian man writes to a Japanese woman. She writes back. Romance blossoms
between the two, the pen-friends exchange vows over letters, then spend the next
fifteen years as a married couple without ever setting eyes on each other, until
the intimacy of words is tested finally by the intimacy of life. Like 'The
Japanese Wife', the other stories in this collection are also about residents
and non-residents. In 'Grateful Ganga', an American rock queen shares her love
tunes with a Punjabi businessman even as she mourns her dead husband; in
'Snakecharmer', a retired Israeli American professor arrives in India with the
intention of committing suicide, only