Bhagavati: Blood of the Goddess

In the conclusion to Dalkey's brilliant trilogy begun in Goa and continued in Bijapur, Thomas Chinnery, an apprentice apothecary whom fortune and the Fates have set adrift far from his native England, winds his way ever deeper into the labyrinthine interior of India. There magic and medicine peel away the layers of accepted reality, and dread spirits and forbidding gods fight for possession of his body and soul. Thomas is trying to revive his dead Hindu ladylove, Aditi, by bringing her to the source of the miraculous potion rasa mahadevi (literally, the ""blood of the goddess""). On this dangerous quest, he is surrounded by characters both historical and fictional, all with their own deeply held faiths and conflicting and complex motivations. They include a brutal Catholic inquisitor who--himself returned from the dead--has begun to doubt both his profession and beliefs; an angelic Christian boy-child with an eclectically erudite nature; a Sufi mystic traveling a difficult path to enlightenment; a Scottish scholar with mysterious allegiances; a battalion of hostile soldiers; a noble Hindu leader and his venal foil; and various fantastical creatures personifying myth and madness. Dalkey's touch is sure, as deft at describing the lore surrounding an herb as at luring her readers into devouring her tale. Rarely has research, religion and fine writing been blended into such a literate and lively elixir. (June)