Jon Godden authored a slender gem in The Seven Islands. It's a quick read which nonetheless provokes thought on the topic of pervasive development. The reader is introduced to a saddhu, an ascetic monk, who lives on snake infested islands in the middle of a river. Noisy construction threatens to forever alter the placid contemplative existence of his isolated retreat. Without overstepping strict religious restraints the monk must find a way to thwart the inexorable advance of "civilization." A simple story from a less complicated era pertains even today and still has the potential to move and inspire.