{"product_id":"ka-isbn-9780679775478","title":"Ka","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn \"the very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New Republic)\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eCalasso plunges Western readers into the mind of ancient India. He begins with a mystery: Why is the most important god in the Rg Veda, the oldest of India's sacred texts, known by a secret name—\"Ka,\" or Who?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat ensues is not an explanation, but an unveiling. Here are the stories of the creation of mind and matter; of the origin of Death, of the first sexual union and the first parricide. We learn why Siva must carry his father's skull, why snakes have forked tongues, and why, as part of a certain sacrifice, the king's wife must copulate with a dead horse. A tour de force of scholarship and seduction,\u003ci\u003e Ka\u003c\/i\u003e is irresistible.\"Passage[s] of such ecstatic insight and cross-cultural synthesis--simply, of such beauty.\"  \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written...A magnificent reading of Hindu texts. Its power arises in part through strong, vivid writing and in part through stunning, unexpected metaphors.\"\u003cbr\u003e --Wendy Doniger, \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Magnificent...A moving, exhillarating, extraordinary book...An astonishing synthesis of myths and legends, philosophical inquiry, and speculative narrative\"\u003cbr\u003e--Shashi Tharoor, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A scintillatingly challenging book...Its opening sentences are as startling as any in all of literature.\"\u003cbr\u003e --Thomas McGonigle, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"All is spectacle and delight, and -tiny mirrors reflecting human foibles are set into the weave, turning this retelling into the stuff of literature...Calasso's erudition and his capacity for invention appear to be limitless.\"        \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"To read \u003ci\u003eKa\u003c\/i\u003e is to experience a giddy invasion of stories--brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Sunil Khilnani, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Calasso has certainly managed to open a new road through the old landscape of literature.\"\u003cbr\u003e--John Banville, \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So brilliant that you can't look at it anymore--and you can't look at anything else. . . . No one will read it without reward.\" \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A buoyant, expansive narrative that captures, with earthy vigor, scrupulous scholarship, and epic breadth, the Indian cultural ethos.\"\u003cbr\u003e-- \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This riveting performance (rendered beautifully into English by Tim Parks) is the fruit of a union\u003cbr\u003ebetween serious scholarship and a mercurial imagination.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Donna Seaman, \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003eRoberto Calasso lives in Milan, Italy.Translated by Tim Parks","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302918803685,"sku":"NP9780679775478","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780679775478.jpg?v=1767730604","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/ka-isbn-9780679775478","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}