After a long separation, two English brothers meet in India. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother, prepares to take his final vows as a Hindu monk. Patrick, a successful publisher with a wife and children in London and a male lover in California, has publicly admired his brother's convictions while privately criticizing his choices. First published in 1967, this novel by the author of A Single Man delicately depicts the complexity of sibling relationships, while dramatizing the conflict between sexuality and spirituality that inspired his late writings.