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"A romance, a travelogue, and a cultural critique ... filled with sumptuous prose. [PK's] determination is more than enough to keep readers enthralled." -- Publishers Weekly "This book will appeal to the optimistic, the romantic, and the armchair traveler. This is a story of human connection that spans continents, class, and race." -- Library Journal "A beautiful, epic tale of love and perseverance." -- BOOKLIST Pradyumna Kumar, known as PK, was born into a poor, untouchable family in a small village in eastern India. All his life he has kept a palm leaf bearing an astrologer's prophecy: "You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not from the district, not even from our country; she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox." But not until PK attends art school in New Delhi do his stars begin to align. One evening, while drawing portraits in a park, he meets a young Swedish woman, Lotta von Schendin - and this brief meeting will change the courses of their lives forever.This is the remarkable true story of how a young Indian man armed with nothing more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand Raleigh bicycle made his way across Asia and Europe in search of the woman he loves.