Abdul's Taxi to Kalighat

New Delhi: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS, 1999. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good+/Very Good. A highly collectible first edition/printing, protected in a new brodart wra pper. Where's Kalighat? In Calcutta, it's home to a temple for the much-worshippe d Indian goddess Kali. A fearful sight, she's a "black-skinned woman with b lazing eyes" and blood dripping from her protruding tongue. Devotees give o fferings to encourage her to scare away demons. As a symbol, Kali is repres entative of the bustling city of Calcutta in all its vibrancy and extremity , a city which Joe Roberts vividly evokes in this sensitive travel book. Joe, wife Emma and baby son Llewelyn moved to Calcutta for five months to experience its rich intensity. What they found was a city that "despite its poverty and overcrowding" is "grand, battered and soulful". Roberts's book tells the story of their stay, of the history, art and culture of the place as well as the idiosyncrasies of the various characters they meet. A post-colonialist languor tinges the world in which they move.