Nitin Shankar has had exposure to several cultures and his memoir describes his experiences in countries ranging from India and Iran to Germany and Switzerland. While this autobiography describes the people who played an important part in his life, it also captures the atmosphere of towns such as Bombay in the forties, Berlin in the fifties, Warsaw and Milan in the sixties and Tabriz in the seventies. Much more than a memoir, Permanent Ghosts is a nostalgic journey into a world that exists only in our memories.