An outstanding literary biography AMITAV GHOSH Mukul writes beautifully, and brings to life a man who has often been misunderstood BENJAMIN MOSER This book is a remarkable contribution to the world of Indian letters ANNIE ZAIDI Sachchidanand Hirananda Vatsyayan Agyeya is unarguably one of the most remarkable figures of Indian literature. From his revolutionary youth to acquiring the mantle of a (highly controversial) patron saint of Hindi literature, Agyeyas turbulent life also tells a history of the Hindi literary world and of a new nationspanning as it does two world wars, Independence and Partition, and the building and fraying of the Nehruvian state. Akshaya Mukuls comprehensive and unflinching biography is a journey into Agyeyas public, private and secret lives. Based on neverseenbefore archival materialincluding a mammoth trove of private papers, documents of the CIAfunded Congress for Cultural Freedom and colonial records of his years in jailthe book delves deep into the life of the nonconformist poetnovelist. Mukul reveals Agyeyas revolutionary life and bombmaking skills, his CIA connection, a secret lover, his intense relationship with a first cousin, the trajectory of his political positions, from following M.N. Roy to exploring issues dear to the Hindu right, and much more. Along the way, we get a rare peek into the factionalism and pettiness of the Hindi literary world of the twentieth century, and the wondrous and grand debates which characterized that milieu. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover features a formidable cast of characters from writers like Premchand, Phanishwarnath Renu, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and Josephine Miles to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Azad and actor Balraj Sahni. And its landscapes stretch from British jails, an intellectually robust Allahabad and modernday Delhi to monasteries in Europe, the homes of Agyeyas friends in the Himalayas and universities in the US. This book is a magnificent examination of Agyeyas civilizational enterprise. Ambitious and scholarly, Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover is also an unputdownable, whirlwind of a read.