"Kim" is the title of
Rudyard Kipling's most successful
novel, written in 1901 and still studied as
literature in many
schools and universities.
It discusses the life of an orphaned son of an Irish soldier and is set in India, then a British colony.
There Kim (whose full name is Kimball o'Hara) meets a tibetan Holy Man and joins him on his quest to find a sacred river. On the way, he is adopted by a Colonel of his father's old regiment, who sees the boy's potential, due to the latter's dual nature as a roughened Indian boy and owning British blood, to work as a spy for Britain.
The story continues with Kim entering the British secret service and doing heroic deeds in stealing important papers from russian spies stationed in the Himalayas.
The story has a rather whimsical ending where the boy meets the Holy Man once more to search for his river. The treasure in this tale is its detailed description of indian life, and the interesting split character of Kim, so oriental, so british, so free-spirited.