Rohinton Mistry, born Bombay/Mumbai, now living in Canada, is one of the many Indian diaspora writers writing in English. He has authored 5 books –
- Such a Long Journey Faber and Faber, 1991
- Tales from Firozsha Baag Faber and Faber, 1992
- A Fine Balance Faber and Faber, 1996
- Family Matters Faber and Faber, 2002
- The Scream McClelland & Stewart, 2008
Author photo courtesy of Faber and Faber website.
The BookA Fine Balance
During 1975 amidst the State of Emergency, Farsi widow Dina is trying desperately to avoid her brother’s attempts at making a second marriage for her. In an attempt to earn an independent living she takes in a student lodger, Maneck, and begins a tailoring business, illegally, from her flat with two Hindu tailors, Ishvar and his nephew Omprakash, struggling to make their way in the city. Four lives, brought together by circumstance provide the basis for exploring many of the issues facing India – overcrowding, birth control, urban slums, caste, religion, beggars, homelessness, migration, corruption, and the abuse of power.
The book has won many Literary prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the Giller Prize, and has been shortlisted for many other including the Booker, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.
My Review
Great reviews of this book abound, so I am not going to duplicate. But I will say that as a first world-er living, albeit temporarily in India many years after the Emergency, I can still related to
This book will bring tears to your eyes, sorrow to your hearts and laughter to your voice. It is full to the brim with characters, their stories, their lives, the predicaments they find themselves in. I absolutely loved it. So where's the film, I ask! The saga style is one I come back to time and time again in my reading: I love their mix of character, place, life stories. This was my first, but certainly not my last, Rohinton Mistry book. Belated maybe, but I think I just discovered India's equivalent to Naguib Mahfouz - both depict their countries so well, with a deft touch of the socio-political, whilst keeping the story grounded in true to life, well formed, characters.
A highly recommended read.
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