"Amrit is a reporter for the Sentinel, dispatched to 'the region' - an unnamed and remote part of India - on the vaguest of assignments. Initially reluctant, and aware for a while that his career is going nowhere, Amrit has thought of turning the situation to his advantage by the time he departs: he will write a story for a foreign magazine where he has a vague contact and an even vaguer chance of a job." "A mysterious room in the office archives provides him with the perfect story for the foreign magazine: a photograph of a young woman, involved in pornography, taken captive by a shadowy insurgent group, and paraded before the press as a lesson to others like her. Yet, following her trails through dead-ends and paths that peter out, Amrit soon learns that in the region nothing is quite what it seems: the woman, the insurgent group, a place known as the Prosperity Project, the director of the project, and even Amrit himself. Amrit is warned off, then persuaded closer, finds himself either biding his time or hurrying forwards. Finally, with his goal in sight, Amrit is forced to rethink his quest - and, indeed, where his journey will take him next." "Set in a region as real as it is imaginary, Surface sketches the boundaries between illusion and truth, and the lives of people caught in the middle."--BOOK JACKET.