Asra Q. Nomani was born in India and grew up in Morgantown, Virginia, where her father helped start the town's only mosque. She is a Wall Street Journal correspondent who has also written about the war in Afghanistan for Salon. This account of her four-year quest for love and self-discovery began during a professional assignment to write about America's hottest new fad, Tantra. This mysterious practice is said to have had its genesis in goddess worship before it seeped into Hinduism and Buddhism. Nomani learns about its shallow side in Santa Cruz and its shadow side from her parents, who warn that it is black magic. Her odyssey takes her to India, Thailand, and Pakistan.
After an early failed marriage, the author is drawn to the idea that Tantra, a means of creating a spiritual partnership between a man and woman, can lead to mutual enlightenment. But even more appealing is what it offers her as a woman: "To practice Tantra well is to be a Tantrika, a woman who isn't defined by anything, living compassionately, lovingly, blissfully, and fearlessly with appropriate wrathfulness when necessary. To master Tantra is to become a dakini, a woman who dances in the sky, flying free of the things in life that keep her hostage to ego, fear and boundaries." It is through this lens that Nomani tries to come to terms with the fundamentalist Islam in her own family, the kidnapping and murder of her friend and colleague Danny Pearl, and her own unplanned pregnancy while in a country that views such illegal sex as a crime. The author's inner search for meaning helps her become a true connoisseur of hospitality.
