India, June 20 -- It can be slightly off-putting to encounter the work of self-referential writers whose characters' whole identity revolves around the act of reading or writing. This is because readerly characters are mostly all good. Indeed, with a life so fixated on books and libraries, they are often quite bland. Still, much depends on treatment. A reader can have a colourful life too and, if presented well, even the most cliched readerly life can be exciting to read about.

Who else can do this better than a poet writing a novel about a readerly life? Udayan Vajpeyi's novel Qayas (Speculation), masterfully translated from the original Hindi as Love Is Participation In Eternity by Poonam Saxena, is one such work.

A wonderful read wit...