Two hundred pages with generous margins may seem hopelessly inadequate for a travel book about India, but Samanth Subramanian's theme allows him to illuminate aspects of its history, culture, religion, economics and geography. The theme is fish. In Kolkata, he acquires the locals' skill of deboning hilsa fish in his mouth. In Hyderabad, he ingests a live murrel fish stuffed with a secret recipe reputed to combat asthma. He drinks palm wine in shacks in Kerala, with incendiary fish curries, and meets boat-builders, fishermen, faith healers and religious leaders.

There is a good deal of "I" here, but no sense of why the traveller is travelling. In its place are vivid enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity and a delight in language, as in a curry that "scalded my mouth, seared my tonsils, and sent parades of flavour marching up and down my tongue".