Pallavi Aiyer, a Mandarin-speaking Indian journalist in Beijing since 2002, has written Smoke and Mirrors, a book on China that apparently offers “a fresh perspective on the rise of this ancient civilisation which, like its giant neighbour on the other side of the Himalayas, is grappling with large-scale social, economic and political changes.” Based on the review below, her recent article on China, and my own travel there, it sure seems promising to me (release in Sept 08).

When Aiyar went from India to China in 2002 to keep a tryst and teach English journalism, she was stricken by “fear of the truly unknown” that lay north of the Himalayas. The haze cleared during the next five years of extensive travel and reporting, uncovering a landscape of “powerful contradictions” in which a sprinting economic engine existed alongside stationary authoritarian politics. Smoke and Mirrors is the story of a country undergoing dizzying change, recounted through an intelligent Indian prism.

More here.