The world in balance

Description

This is the great novel of contemporary India, realistic, rich and inspired - with the inspiration of a Hugo or a Dickens. The story takes place in the 1970s and 1980s. In the same neighbourhood live characters from very different backgrounds: Ishvar and Omprakash, the two tailors of the 'untouchables'. Dina, the young widow, who, in order to survive, starts making clothes at home. Maneck, who has come down from the mountains to study. Shankar, the one-legged man, exploited by the beggar master. And many more besides... Through the ups and downs of their lives, in episodes that are by turns funny, tender or cruel, against a backdrop of tormented and often tragic political events, Rohinton Mistry, an English novelist born in Bombay, paints a fresco that is both the odyssey of a nation and a parable of the human condition. This is one of those novels that sweeps you along irresistibly.