A year immersed in one of India's most sacred cities

Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi is a travel memoir by British writer Piers Moore Ede, who spent a full year living in the ancient Hindu city on the banks of the Ganges after earlier visits drew him back to India.

Rather than a chronological travelogue, the book is arranged thematically, moving through the city's spiritual life around cremation and pilgrimage, its traditional trades such as silk weaving and sweet-making, and its harder realities, including poverty and the position of widows in Varanasi society. Ede lets the people he meets tell much of the story in their own words.

Recommended for readers of literary travel writing who want an unvarnished, closely observed portrait of a place well beyond the guidebook version.

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