A Very Small Disaster

It is the early 1970's. To escape his failed marriage Peter Chambers arrives in Clarence, capital of Bhogwani, a small, poverty-stricken country in the Indian sub-continent. He is to take charge of the aid-funded and much-delayed Project for the Electrification of Greater Clarence.
Amid the heat and the dust, the chaotic traffic, the corruption, the inept bureaucracy, the desperate, grinding poverty, the drunken, despairing lives of the expatriate workers, he attempts to reconstruct his life.
Fiona Mason has lived her twenty-five years quietly in a small village in Northumberland. She has had no adventures, no excitement, no lovers. Then she meets Bryan Fuller, a doctor who has spent eight years in Africa. He is recovering from a serious illness but is determined to return as soon as he is well. He is told that his next posting will be to Bhogwani.
In Clarence, while her husband works up-country Fiona is introduced by the wives of the diplomats to the life of an expatriate woman: drinks by the pool, servants, sunset gin-and-tonics, vicious gossip, terminal boredom. Soon she will find another way to pass the time.
As the first stirrings of Islamic fundamentalism begin to appear among the local population, as Peter Chambers tries desperately to complete his project before the arrival of the monsoon rains, Bryan Fuller uncovers a corrupt scheme and drives to Clarence over Bhogwani's awful, dangerous roads to confront the Minister involved.
Foreseen through the eyes of a mystic holy man, the novel attempts to show the utter lack of understanding between the cultures and customs of east and west. And how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.