The Water Veil by Nikhil D. Hegde is a commitment. It’s dense and intense, it’s heartbreaking more often than it’s not, and with every new character introduced, I found myself wondering where it was going and how it might end. But it’s also beautifully rendered, meticulously researched, and a tour de force.

The novel spans across multi-generation, though intangibly. The story takes place primarily in enigmatic hidden valleys, India. The novel follows the story of Leela and her ancestral lineage steeply tied in the valleys. The focus of the novel is mystical mysterious waterfalls of the valleys.

“It was the intent of the diver that decided where the valley transported her. She had to go back into the past once again to understand what the Sutradhaar was meant to do.”

As she begins to learn that she is connected to the waterfalls. On a wish of her father, she sets for there with her friend. Every time Leela visits the valley, she is surprised by its new mysteries it unfurls. Leela’s strange connection with the valley is exposed as she tries to understand her ancestors’ genealogy. But the tragedy that could kill her daughter at the falls stops her from being too much involved with its current situation, the waterfalls hold the key to divine visions; however, an order of saints is busy leveraging that myth for their personal gains.

Leela’s personal journey to avert the rotten state of the waterfalls leads readers to switch between alternative narrative of present and past. Not highlighting the deeds of any one particular character, yet it studies the characters that circled in around the valley. The novel flows like a river, with detailed scenes and character development intertwining. The readers, meanwhile, are left to carry out their own interpretations unless they complete the book till the last line. Even before the halfway point, I felt like plenty of story had been told and it was time to wrap things up, yet the final discovery in the additional pages still awaited me. What more needs to be told? How will this end? When will it end?

While I was being carried along the waterfalls, Nikhil was weaving a complex tapestry around me. Every character and story in the meandering novel has a purpose, and all of that intention is pulled together and made clear in the final pages. Overall, from my lenses of perception, it turns out to be a riveting atmosphere with a strikingly intense narrative!