It is the summer of 1948. In the heady aftermath of World War II, London is reawakening to a more confident, buoyant future. But for Sebastian Reynolds, an immensely successful newspaper publisher, the future looks less certain. Despite his substantial wealth and eminent position, he has never managed to penetrate the closed, rarified circles of English society. Nor has he managed to escape the whiff of scandal that everywhere precedes him. Thousands of miles away, in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, Vikhram Sukhadia is thinking only of his home in Bombay. Weighed down heavily by the burdens of unrelenting poverty, for two years he has struggled in the mournful desert to find a new path for himself. A path that might narrow the gap between the soaring promises made to his young family and his still scant achievements. Closer East traces the stirring adventures of these two men who share a dream of India. A faraway place that, for each of them, holds the promise of release and of redemption.