Climate fiction: When his father vanishes, Rajan becomes the last keeper of an ancient prophecy

The book was Rajan’s constant companion over the next few weeks. He would wake up with the book by his side. He read it through the day after Lakshmi had left for school, putting it down only when he heard her voice in the evening. And after she slept, the book was again in his hands.

Rajan was a tall man with a good physique, but sloth and alcohol had left their mark on a once-athletic body. As the mind grew keen again, the body strove to keep pace. It started with a walk in the morning and then another in the evening with Lakshmi through the temple.

The temple was large, faced east with several entrances, each with a gopuram on top. One entered into a long passageway flanked by tall pillars, which opened into a courtyard built around the temple pond. The same pond that was believed to have given moksha to devotees over the centuries. On one side of the courtyard lay a sacred grove, while on the other was a shrine dedicated to the very unusual female guardian deity of the temple. She was a fierce guardian, and most hurried past her with a quick bowed head and a salutation....

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