THE AFFLICTIONS

The Encyclopaedia Medicinae at the Central Library is the repository of a dizzying array of ailments and Maximo is thrilled to get a peek at the obscure afflictions:

An amnesia that causes everyone you've ever met to forget you exist while you remain painfully aware of your history.

A malady that erodes the link between cause and effect: one man commits a murder another carries the guilt and a third is sentenced for it.

A condition that causes your body to imitate death -- stopping your heart cooling your blood. Will the fit pass before they bury you or after?

As Maximo soon discovers the pursuit of knowledge at the Central Library is tangled up with the humours and inclinations of the writers and their times.

The Afflictions is the brilliant first novel by physician-scientist Vikram Paralkar whose The Wounds of the Dead garnered much critical acclaim.