"Jadunath Kunwar's beginnings are humble, even inauspicious. His mother, while pregnant, nearly dies from a cobra bite. And this is only the first of many challenges in store for Jadu. As his life skates between the mythical and the mundane, Jadu finds meaning in the most unexpected places. He becomes a historian. He has a daughter, Jugnu, who grows up to be a television journalist and then escapes her marriage for a career in the United States. And...

"Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last twenty years, she hasn't been able to see movement. As she walks around her upper Manhattan neighborhood with her white stick tapping in front, most people assume she's blind. But the truth is Leah sees a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice. She has a quiet, orderly life, with little human contact beyond...