'A lot of people lose their way in India . . . it's a country specially made for that.'

Amid the backstreets, brothels and faded hotels of Bombay, Madras and the old Portuguese port of Goa, a man searches for his lost friend. Xavier has been missing for a year, and the only clues to his disappearance lie with an overworked doctor, a young prostitute and the leader of a strange religious order.

Dreamlike, elusive and profoundly disquieting, Indian Nocturne calls into question the very nature of identity.

Beautiful, dreamlike -- Salman Rushdie
Tabucchi . . . takes his place alongside Irene Nemirovsky, Sandor Marai and Stefan Zweig as one of the great Continental rediscoveries for English-speaking readers * * Daily Telegraph * *
Tabucchi writes . . . with an agility of mind and an economy of narrative that pulls the reader along * * Observer * *
Fragmented, enigmatic and hypnotising -- Val Hennessy * * Daily Mail * *
[Indian Nocturne has] an almost ethereal lightness, which is soul stirring and at the same time emotionally intuitive * * The National * *
The joy of this book is in the journey. If you read it don't rush it; it's a book to savour * * A Life in Books * *
Pereira Maintains is small only in size. Its themes are great ones - courage, betrayal, fidelity, love, corruption; and its treatment of them is subtle, skilful, and clear. It's so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It's the most impressive novel I've read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary -- Philip Pullman on PEREIRA MAINTAINS

Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa in 1943. Tabucchi authored twenty critically acclaimed novels and short story collections, nine of which have been translated into English, together with numerous essays and plays. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, he has been awarded many prestigious prizes, including the Prix Medicis étranger for Indian Nocturne and the Premio Campiello, the Premio Viareggio and the Aristeion Prize for Pereira Maintains. Tabucchi was Emeritus professor at the University of Siena, and also taught at Bard College in New York, the Ecole de Hautes Etudes and the College de France in Paris. He died in March 2012.