Can books have something telepathic between them? It certainly felt that way to hold Ramu Velar's book in my hands and to read it in one greedy sitting last night. How miraculous it should be published in the same week as my new novel, The Earthspinner . As I turned the pages of A Potter's Tale it felt many times as though the potter in my book, Elango, had sprung from Ramu Velar. Ramu Velar describes the way he excavates clay from a pond, how "my grandfather was a potter and so was my father". Exactly like the potter in my book, Elango. A few pages later, Ramu Velar tells us how as a child, "each of us would bring a handful of grain from home, pluck drumstick leaves from a nearby tree, throw everything together into a pot and cook until we had a mess of rice and leaves..." Here is Elango, describing the moringa (drumstick) tree in his courtyard: "Elango came back from the pond that afternoon and settle down to smoke and draw, leaning against the