After two years as a postgraduate student at Nanjing University in China, Vikram Seth hitch-hiked back to his home in New Delhi, via Tibet. From Heaven Lake is the story of his remarkable journey and his encounters with nomadic Muslims, Chinese officials, Buddhists and others.

From Heaven Lake, Vikram Seth, Knopf, Paperback, 1987, 178 Pages, $15.00

Vikram Seth's prose fiction debut, A Suitable Boy, sold over one million copies worldwide despite the fact that at 1,349 pages long, it holds the distinction of being the longest single volume ever published in the English language.