Colonial frostbite | Deepa Anappara's 'The Last of Earth'

The premise of The Last of Earth is that the local guides who accompanied British adventurers into the Himalaya must have been formidable mountaineers and adventurers themselves. Set in the second half of the 19th century, the hero of this richly detailed novel is Balram, a one-time schoolteacher. He and his childhood friend Gyan have been trained as surveyor-spies for the British Indian Empire. Their primary value to the empire is that, unlike white-skinned foreigners, they can pass into the Forbidden Kingdom of Tibet.