Song of Kali

Song of Kali is a horror novel by American writer Dan Simmons, published in 1985. It follows Robert Luczak, an American poet and intellectual who travels to Calcutta, India, on behalf of a literary magazine. His assignment is to locate poetry allegedly written recently by M. Das, a celebrated Bengali poet who disappeared and was presumed dead eight years earlier.

He is accompanied by his British Indian wife Amrita, a mathematician, and their infant daughter. Robert soon becomes entangled in mysterious and horrific events centred on a cult of Kapalikas who worship Kali, the Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction. What begins as a professional errand turns into a growing sense of unease: Das's later poems are dark, mystical and apocalyptic, and his meeting with the poet, who is gravely ill with leprosy, leaves Robert with more questions than answers.

After a family tragedy, the protagonist is driven toward revenge, but ultimately manages to resist what he perceives as the force of cruelty and madness present in every human heart. The novel won the 1986 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Later critical opinion has been divided: some readers have pointed to its weak plotting and to a caricatured portrayal of Hinduism, sparking debate about its cultural representation.