David Charles Manners' critically acclaimed novel In the Shadow of Crows is a remarkable account of love and loss, a lyrical ode to the wonderful and terrible beauty of India, and a masterly meditation on the interweaving of separate lives. It is an inspirational account of a young man raised in the suburban comforts of Surrey, a widow ravaged by leprosy in the Eastern Himalaya, and the impact on them both as their worlds collide. (See below for full synopsis.)

"David Charles Manners is an inspiring writer and speaker, and I heartily recommend seizing the chance to hear him, or better still to meet him at one of his book signings. Intelligent and generous, cosmopolitan and compassionate... Mr. Manners has led and is leading a big life. Disinclined to squander opportunity, his appetite for experience, as well as his humour and big heartedness, are palpable on every page of In the Shadow of Crows. Having spent the better part of a quarter century interviewing people, mostly for CBC radio, I have been on the fortunate receiving end of many, many personal and remarkable stories, and his is one I will always remember. Read him. Meet him. It will be time well spent."

- Bill Richardson, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcaster & award-winning author

Author Bio:

David Charles Manners studied Music and Physical Medicine, and has long maintained an international reputation as a physical therapist with professional musicians, notably at Glyndebourne Opera.  For the past eighteen years, he has spent his life between the Sussex Downs and the Bengal Himalaya.

David Charles Manners' website

Charity:

In the Shadow of Crows supports Sarvashubhamkara, a charity co-founded by the author, which provides medical care, educations and human contact for socially excluded individuals and communities on the Indian subcontinent.

Story Synopsis:

When Bindra contracts leprosy she is driven from her home, even from the foothills in which she was born, due to the prejudice and ignorance of those with whom she lives. She finds herself on the Plains, away from all she has ever known, divided from the only language she is able to understand. As Bindra undertakes a seemingly impossible journey in search of understanding and peace, she loses all that has maintained her strength and sanity. She is eventually left languishing in a charitable compound, where the children of others affected by leprosy gradually restore her will to live. David is brought up speaking 'kitchen Urdu', due to his family's heritage in the Punjab during the Raj. His childhood imagination is entirely consumed by a fantasy life in India, a country in which he has never once stepped. Not until he finds himself lost, isolated and without direction due to a series of tragedies, is he driven to rediscover his non-British roots. In so doing, he discovers some thirty relations still living in the Eastern Himalaya, of whom nothing had been spoken due to their mixed blood and illegitimacy. However, the reality of the poverty and misery with which he comes in contact on his journey across the Subcontinent finally dispels the naivety of his childhood imagination, whilst inspiring him to radically change the path of his life. And when he eventually walks into a leprosy colony and meets an elderly woman called Bindra, both their lives are transformed.

David Charles Manners' website