Benares begins with a couple of Mauritian friends going up to the capital,
Port-Louis, to spend the money one of them has won at a poker game. Having
found two prostitutes, they all head back to Benares, the tiny village
where they live in the far sough of the island. As their taxi slowly pushes
on through the night the passengers swap stories to reassure and get to
know one another. Out of the simplest of journeys, Barlen Pyamootoo has
constructed a beautiful, immediate tale of remote lives, vividly evoking
his birthplace and portraying, with subtle humour and pathos, the universal
need to connect and share a sense of one's place in the world. The result
is an ambiguous, touching and troubling debut novel by a writer with
exceptional talent.