Drifter, dropout, dreamer Jingo believes he has rejected any form of class privilege in a hideously unequal society. Making a meagre living as a part-time door-to-door market researcher, he jots down notes on characters and insights for a novel. Is he serious about his self-professed vocation? Or just too laid-back, just too fond of getting high?

As the story moves effortlessly from a middle-class Parsi housing colony to a far-flung slum on the outskirts of the city, memories of a bitter love affair continue to haunt Jingo, but its only when his other romance-with the city-erupts in a nightmare of horror that he realizes hed better wake up before its too late.

The Radiance of Ashes is a beautifully described tale of desire, duty and dreams. It is also a story about families, about the truths we hold and the lies we tell, about the fires that burn in each of us-what is left once the flames have died away.