1901 (the first) edition, illustrated"Kim" is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling. "Kim" is listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel."Book is considered by many to be Kipling's masterpiece, one of the best stories in English about India.It is a tale of adventure, a drama of a boy, a mystical story that unfolds against the backdrop of "The Great Game", the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. Story is set after the Second Afghan War (ended 1881). Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother, living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century. Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. He becomes lama's disciple, is trained as an English spy, travels around the India, performs spy missions. Read more