Author(s): Meaghan Delahunt

Fiction

Three strangers meet in Bhopal, India: Francoise, an Australian photographer; Naga, a Tibetan refugee, and Arkay, a Scottish alcoholic drawn to Buddhism. Their stories are prompted by the photographs which Francoise assembles into an album - the "Red Book" - as testament to their time together. The photographs are witness to the traces they have left, the people they have been and the surprising connections between them - in Delhi, Rajasthan, Varanasi, and above all, in Bhopal. Twenty years earlier, a gas leak at Bhopal's Union Carbide factory killed thousands and the city's trauma reverberates through each of their lives. Francoise struggles to successfully bear witness to the event which shaped her life's path; Arkay is brought up against 'the old story' of his discarded alcoholic life; Naga fights his anger at his family's death.Through their meeting in Bhopal and the relationships that develop between them, each is led to an unexpected resolution of their restless personal search. First published 2008.