Fiction

More than a century after it was first published, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book remains one of the world’s favourite collections of stories. Mowgli, the human child brought up by wild animals in the jungles of India, has imprinted himself on the minds of readers as one of the most-loved literary characters of all time.

n this fascinating novel, award-winning author Stephen Alter takes Mowgli’s story forward in time, transposing the classic jungle tale into unexplored terrain, where animated movies and other adaptations have never gone before. We first see Mowgli as a boy being raised by an elephant matriarch, leader of a herd that lives in a wildlife sanctuary that he calls home. After a series of adventures, the story shifts to the discovery of a foundling deep in the forest. The rescued child is delivered to an orphanage run by an American missionary, Miss Cranston, in a dusty village on the Gangetic Plain.