In the following brief review of Gita Mehta's A River Sutra, Boyd Tonkin praises the novel as didactic and refreshing prose, part of an Indo- British wave of writers who confirm that the "cultural passage between south Asia and the west can still yield fresh perspectives."

The stumbling nonentities who pass these days for cabinet ministers love to invoke the glories of our language. As if, with their ghastly off-the-peg cliches about village greens and warm beer, they had any right to act as its custodians. In fact, English as a literary medium has been rescued by regular shots of alien talent: Irish, American, Carribean and Asian. Most of its present glory comes from authors who would fail the Tebbit "cricket test" with flying colours.

Among them, the tribe of Indo-British writers conspicuously thrives. Two new works—both second novels—confirm that the cultural passage between south...