The Last Of Earth by Deepa Anappara [Hardcover]

Deepa Anappara's The Last of Earth is a sweeping historical adventure novel set in 1869, during the height of the Great Game, when the British Empire sought to map and gain influence over Tibet, a land largely closed to Europeans.

The story follows Balram, an Indian schoolteacher secretly employed as a surveyor-spy by the British. When his close friend Gyan disappears on a dangerous mission inside Tibet, Balram joins a risky expedition led by a British officer disguised as a monk. Their journey intersects with Katherine, an English woman determined to become the first European woman to reach Lhasa after being excluded from the male-dominated geographical establishment.

As they travel across the harsh Himalayan landscape, the characters confront not only natural dangers—storms, bandits, wild animals, disease, and extreme weather—but also difficult moral questions about ambition, loyalty, identity, colonialism, and the desire to leave a lasting legacy.

Rather than being only an adventure story, the novel explores the human cost of empire and gives voice to characters whose lives are shaped by colonial ambitions.