Spanning thirty years, This Place of Mud and Bone follows the lives of these schoolmates as they negotiate a political struggle that continually shapeshifts but never ends. The novel tells the story of how Karnabahadur transformed into Angulimaal and why Buddha was forced to kill him; it describes why Tshering became Tshering the Murderer and, eventually, Mad Tshering; it explores the circumstances that made Ambar hang himself; and describes why Sarita ended up selling eggs in a hospital. Even as it captures the minutiae of individual, yet intertwined, lives, this capacious novel―also a contemporary history of the Darjeeling hills―shows how people learn to absorb violence and live with it, and how a man who has made up his mind can be the strongest force on earth.