The Impressionist is Hari Kunzru's sweeping novel of India, empire and identity. In India, at the birth of the last century, an infant is brought howling into the world, his remarkable paleness marking him out from his brown-skinned fellows. Revered at first, he is later cast out from his wealthy home when his true parentage is revealed. So begins Pran Nath's odyssey of self-discovery - a journey that will take him from the streets of Agra, via the red light district of Bombay, to the brick cloisters of Oxford and beyond - as he struggles to understand who he really is. 'Delectable, sweeping, empire-savaging, audaciously playful . . . Kunzru writes with wry certitude and cinematic precision' The New York Times 'Grand, sprawling, extravagant, lyrical . . . A work so vibrant and richly imagined that you can smell the incense' Esquire 'Epic in scale and rich in historical detail . . . the narrative is deft and swift . . . carrying the reader along effortlessly. This first novel has startling depth, ambition and craftmanship' Time Out