Author: MISTRY, ROHINTON (1952-)
Title: A fine balance / Rohinton Mistry
Description: London : Faber and Faber 1996. 2nd edition. Tipped-in card. SIGNED and inscribed by the author. Slight spine lean. Near fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. now mylar sleeved. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight. bright. clean and especially sharp-cornered. Copy is not price-clipped. Physical description; 614 pages ; 24 cm. Summary; A novel set in India during the Emergency. by the author of 'Such a Long Journey'. In the tiny flat of the widowed Dina Dalal. two tailors and a young student struggle to put together a new life of sorts amid the crisis. and in the course of doing so encounter a vivid cast of characters. Review: It's long. it's full of life. and it's a really fast-paced read. Mistry is a master storyteller and knows how to hold a reader's interest. The plot concerns the interconnected fortunes of four characters; of Ishvar and Omprakesh Darji. rural tailors adrift in a fictionalised Bombay. Maneck Kohlah. an unworldly student form the Himalayas. and Dina Dalal. owner of the constricted flat where these lives collide. The book weighs heavy but reads light. brimful with comic incident. fear and farce. as Mistry unfolds how each character copes in the aftermath of the internal emergency of 1970s India. Liberally sprinkled with local detail and language. the personal takes precedence over the polemical and a complex tale emerges involving a wide cast of incidental. but memorable characters. Like all good feasts. this novel is to be savoured slowly. Subjects; India - Social conditions - 1947- - Fiction. India - Politics and government - 1975-1977 - Fiction. India - Fiction. India - Social conditions - 1947-. ISBN: 0571176674. Weight in Kg appr.:

Keywords: 0571176674