With The Tiger is a retelling of the Somerset Maugham novel the Razor's Edge (1944), which popularised the idea of the Westerner's search for meaning in "spiritual India". First published in India by HarperCollins in 2008 to positive reviews. Larry, an Australian teenager goes on a backpacking trip to India in 1979 and finds his life changed for ever. Back home he refuses the opportunities and privileges of his former life and breaks up with his fiancée Isabel. Larry returns to India many times over 20 years in his search for the meaning of chance and death. Isabel achieves wealth and status in marriage with Grey, a property developer. When they all meet again Grey has been ruined by financial and political scandal and Larry becomes engaged to their grieving, badly-behaved old friend Sophie. And Isabel will stop at nothing to get Larry back.