A meeting by the river

Christopher Isherwood

Breaking a long silence Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother is living in a Hindu Monastery and has decided to take his final monastic vows. Patrick, a successful, long-married publisher, newly in love with a boy in Los Angeles, decides to visit Oliver to persuade him not renounce the world. The novel exposes the complex rivalries of sibling relationships and dramatises the conflict between sexuality and spirituality.