Ascetic of Desire

The Kama Sutra is the most widely read treatise on sex ever written, though the man who chronicled all there was to experience between men and women remains, for the most part, a mystery. In The Ascetic of Desire, called "A literary achievement of the highest order," by The Times (India), acclaimed author Suhir Kakar tells the story of the man who is believed to be the author of the Kama Sutra, Vatsyayana, and the time in which he lived—the fourth century A.D., considered the golden age of Indian history—in a sensual and psychologically penetrating first novel.

In "The Ascetic of Desire," the elusive sage Vatsyayana recounts his youth to a young pupil, the son of a Brahmin scholar, who is embarking on his first exploration of the sensual life. The young man, planning to write Vatsyayana's biography, listens dutifully as Vatsyayana shares stories of a childhood spent largely in the brother where his favorite aunt worked. There, Vatsyayana gained his first, indelible impressions of sexual artifice and the arousal of desire. As Vatsyayana's story unfolds, the story of a young man's coming of age, the pupil finds, to his consternation, that his own life has begun to reflect and parallel the ascetic's narrative. At the point where their stories intersect, the unexpected happens.

Weaving a powerful narrative together with erotic wisdom from the Kama Sutra, The Ascetic of Desire plumbs the depths of kinds, queens and sages at various stages of discovering their sexual identities. Like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha or Sheri Holman's The Dress-Lodger's Daughter, Sudhir Kakar's novel is a startling combination of psychological insight and historical detail. With rightssold in eleven countries, this is a story of universal appeal imbued with a distant world's charm and exotic allure.
About the AuthorSudhir Kakar is a distinguished writer and noted psychoanalyst. An expert on the sexuality he has written the books Tales of Love, Sex and Danger and Intimate Relations, among others; and has just finished translating a new edition of the Kama Sutra. His books have been translated into many languages and sold throughout the world. The recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, he has taught at several leading universities in India, Europe and the United States. He divides his time between Berlin, New Delhi and teaching positions around the world.