The Museum of Final Journeys — Anita Desai

First published in the “striking” collection, The Art of Disappearance, a novella about government bureaucrat in India who has a change of perspective (New York Times).

Disappointed by his professional and social position, an entitled and officious junior civil servant imagines that his life will change when a mysterious old man promises to lead him to a museum filled with priceless treasures.

Praise for The Art of Disappearance:

“The excellent strength [the novellas] share is a gracefulness and dreamlike sonority, reminiscent of writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and W.G. Sebald, wherein strange evolutions of solitary lives are the rule, and readers are held by the stately, hypnotic dignity of the voice that tells them.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] brilliant miniature exposé of contemporary culture.” -- The Guardian 

“Lingers in the memory the same way these landscapes and people of India prove impossible to forget.” -- Boston Globe