The Familiar Unknown

Samaya leaves Kolkata with one suitcase and the particular silence of someone whose words have run out. She arrives to Sikkim without purpose, just the hope that the altitude and cold will help to loosen whatever has been knotting for years. Instead, what she discovers in the monasteries and mountain air is a pattern she cannot disregard: that she has been here before. Not in Sikkim. But in this feeling. Here with herself. ‘The Familiar Unknown’ is a silent, accurate novel of the distinction between movement and change, and what it requires to distinguish them ultimately.