In A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka, a lyrical and intimate tapestry of five stories dealing with life, loss, and survival in modern-day India, Meera Subramanian travels in search of the ordinary people and micro-enterprises redeeming India’s natural world. An engineer-turned-farmer brings organic food to Indian plates. Villagers revive a dead river. Well-intentioned cook stove designers persist on a quest for a smokeless fire. Biologists bring vultures back from the brink of extinction. And in Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished states, a bold young woman teaches young adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health and in the process, unleashes their untapped potential. In these true stories, Subramanian discovers renewed hope for a sustainable and prosperous future for India.

Meera Subramanian is a US-based journalist and Fulbright-Nehru senior research fellow who writes about culture, faith and the environment for newspapers and magazines around the world. Hear her on Wednesday, September 2 beginning at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge. For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.