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The Ascetic Of Desire: A Novel
(Delhi: Viking, 1998)

U.S. edition (New York: Overlook Press, 2000)

German Translation Kamasutra oder die Kunst des Begehrens (Munich: Beck Verlag, 1999)

French translation L’ascete du Desir (Paris: du Seuil, 2001)

Brazilian edition O Asceta do Desejo(Rio de Janeiro: Companhia das Letras, 2000)

Italian translation l’Ascesi del desiderio (Milan: Neri Pozza, 2000)

Hindi translation Kamayogi (Delhi: Rajkamal, 1999)

Spanish translation (Barcelona: Plaza y Janes, in Press)

Portugese edition O asceta do desejo (Lisabon: Edition Temas y Debates,year 2002)

Hungarian translation (Budapest: Ulpius-haz, 2001)

Gujarati translation (Ahmedabad: Image Publishing, in Press)

Russian translation (Moscow:Ripol Classic, in Press)

Rumanian translation, Ascetul Dorunta (Bucharest: Editura Trei, 2007 )

Malayalam translation (Trivandrum: Green Books, in Press)

From Reviews

The world of Vatsyayana reverberates so vividly with excitement that we feel we can hear the jingle of ankle bells and inhale the perfumes of the women who dance past us on the page. Always an elegant stylist, Sudhir Kakar has written a sensual work that is alive with historical detail and provocative ideas about the world’s most fascinating subject.
New York Times Book Review

Lushly sensual and thoughtful debut novel….Throughout the book, Kakar offers a tantalizing view of how sex is constructed, dreamed, subdued and performed in culturally specific contexts and through history, rich folklore and marvelous parables. It’s an impassioned and unusual tale dense with scintillating details and sexual philosophy.
Publishers Weekly

In part a homage to the Kamasutra, in part beautiful storytelling, The Ascetic of Desire is a highly enjoyable and thoughtful read.
Asian Week

Fascinating reading… Sudhir Kakar has reconstructed his (Vatsyayana’s) life and times with the consummate skill of a master-craftsman using psychoanalytic techniques, imagination and felicitous prose.
Khushwant Singh in The Tribune

 

A journey into the furthest past, an ecstatic dream beyond all times.
Vogue, Germany