A journey into the dark heart of the desert. A young District Collector is posted to one of the furthest outposts of rural Rajasthan, and finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the lives and troubles of the common people there. Then one day, with the help of a mysterious musician, the Sarangiya, he has an encounter with beauty in its purest, most absolute form - an encounter that precipitates a dangerous descent. The pages from the journal he keeps are combined with the narratives of various people around him to create a compelling account of his slide away from reality. Half real and half fable, and redolent with the songs and myths, the beauty and mystery of Rajasthan, Anukrti Upadhyay's Daura announces the arrival of a powerful new literary talent.