Kim

About the book

Kim, an orphan growing up in Lahore, becomes the companion of a Tibetan lama searching for a sacred river. Their travels draw on Kim's facility with languages, disguises, and the social codes of the people they meet. Those same abilities attract the attention of men engaged in the Great Game, giving his education another purpose and placing competing demands on his loyalty. Kipling fills the roads, trains, and resting places with conversation and sharply observed encounters. The affectionate relationship between boy and lama gives the novel a centre that does not simply coincide with its political intrigue. Its pleasures of movement and resourcefulness are inseparable from a colonial perspective, making Kim's uncertain place among different communities part of the question the narrative continually returns to.

• Identity and belonging
• Discipleship
• Empire and intrigue

Why read it

For a vivid journey whose central friendship gives spiritual searching and political adventure distinct but intertwined claims on its young traveller.

Novel · English text