Breaking a long silence Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother is living in a Hindu Monastery and has decided to take his final monastic vows. Patrick, a successful publisher and a married man with a skeleton in his cupboard, decides to visit Oliver to persuade him not renounce the world. First published in 1967, ''A Meeting by the River'' delicately depicts the complexity of sibling relationships and dramatizes the conflict between sexuality and spirituality.