Alexander Frater spent the first six years of his life on a South Pacific island where rain seemed to have "metallic weight and mass" and hurricanes gave seasonal "bravura climactic performances." His father - the only doctor within a thousand square miles - passed on to him a fascination and respect for the volatile play of the elements. In 1987 he was about to realize his dream of witnessing firsthand the most dramatic of meteorological events - the Indian monsoon - following it from its "burst" on the beaches of Trivandrum, through Delhi and Calcutta, across Bangladesk, to its finale in the town of Cheerapunji, dubbed by The Guiness Book of World Records as "the Wettest Place Place on Earth." With exceptional sensitivity and wit, Frater uses fact, impression and anecdote to vividly describe his own experience of the monsoon, and at the same time illustrate the towering influence of nature over the lives and culture of India and her people.

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