Son of Power

A boy runs from Chicago to the ends of the earth, searching for something he cannot name. Sanford Hantee, called Skag, escapes a stifling childhood and finds his true education not in schools but in the jawbreaking wilds of America and the steaming jungles of India. Obsessed from boyhood with the Lincoln Park Zoo, he runs away to live among creatures who don't lie or pretend, learning their languages, their hierarchies, their ruthless grace. But Skag is also searching for Dhoop Ki Dhil, the legendary nautch-girl who embodies something more than beauty: power made flesh, mystery made woman. What begins as a boy's infatuation with animals becomes a man's reckoning with desire, will, and the terrible beauty of the world. This is a quest narrative for the wild heart, a book about what we seek when we flee and what we find when we finally stop running.