Ranging from bloody battles in colonial India to college anomie in California, from Hindu gods to MTV, from the pursuit of a legendary murderer in London to a cricket match in Houston, Red Earth and Pouring Rain is a remarkable meditation on quests and homecomings, good and evil, storytelling and redemption. He attended Pomona College in California and the Columbia University Film School and received an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. from the University of Houston. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review.
Stories often combine elements of past and present.
Both western and Indian viewpoints are represented in the book. At first, the monkey Sanjay tells stories in order to prolong his life. The book tells of many journeys. Sometimes the journey is labeled a quest, sometimes an exile.