In 'Holy Smoke', sisters Anna and Jane Campion have fashioned a novel of fierce originality. It is the gripping and erotic story of Ruth, a beautiful young woman who travels to India in search of truth, happily falling under the spell of an Indian guru and his obscure cult. Desperate to rescue her, her family lure her back to Australia, where she is forced to undergo an intense deprogramming treatment by cult specialist P.J. Waters. "Three little steps," he says. "It could all be over in twenty-four hours."
Two days later and the battlegrounds have slowly shifted between counsellor and client. What started as a spiritual struggle about the nature of belief, becomes an intensely sexual and psychological relationship, as the protagonists begin to lose control.
