THIS IS AN Indian novel that breaks the mould. Forget misty-eyed descriptions of Kashmir's lush mountains and shimmering lakes, even though all the action unfolds there. There is no magic realism and no nostalgic looking back to British or Mughal empires, nor even bitter recriminations against them. This is a loud, clattering, twenty-first-century war novel in which drugs, sex, torture, espionage and death are key elements in a wacky, zesty narrative.

Bunker 13 is an odd mixture of fictionalised reportage and fantastical narrative which hurls us into the hostilities between India and Palustan over Kashmir as seen through the eyes of Minty Mehta, an Indian journalist who is more interested in snorting amphetamines and getting his leg over than in pursuing