Delhi-Based Lawyer Sarna Pens High-Altitude Folk Horror

Delhi-based author and poet Satyajit Sarna explores the eerie wilderness of Sikkim in his new folk horror novel "Redtooth".

Published by Simon & Schuster India, the book combines regional folklore and local beliefs against the backdrop of the eastern Himalayas. During a winter trek to the storied Goecha La in the foothills of Mount Khangchendzonga, a diverse group of inexperienced trekkers are led by Manish, a guide grappling with his own troubled past.

The story presents contemporary characters going through their own share of ups and downs, but hoping that this trek will better their life and bring them the peace they seek.

There is a family of four attempting their first post-lockdown holiday, a newly single yoga instructor aiming to prove her independence, an older former mountaineer seeking to reconnect with the peaks, and a young man drawn to the sheer physical challenge of climbing.

During the ascent, however, the past starts to catch up even as the present is full of forebodings and reversed images. Secrets come tumbling out, tensions rise, and the climbers seem caught in a state of hallucination. Is it too much sky? Is it too much space?

Once they are on the rough terrain out in the cold, the characters feel a shift in their core being -- life is literally uphill. Nothing seems real anymore. Especially when the worsening weather forces them to take shelter in an isolated mountain hut. Soon it is an out and out fight for survival.

Sarna contrasts the ordinariness of the climbers with the spooky happenings that suddenly begin to shadow them. The mystery is planted along the way with care and poise; when the strangeness invades, it seems organic even as it shocks. The air is thin up here, the mirage seems real. There are beasts, real or imaginary, hiding in the dark.

The ending is crafted exquisitely. This is where the author reveals his sureness of plot and structure as it all culminates in a night that is both inevitable and stark, providing readers with a resolution that is as astounding as it is satisfying.

The story that was all along inlaid with horror now implodes in the most spectacular way. The mind, it would seem, collaborates with Mother Nature till fear meets facts halfway.

The author brings all the vivid strands together with poise and confidence, dipping into flashbacks and omens along the way, merging them with ancient whispers from the mountains.