A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry | PenguinRandomHouse.com

About A Fine Balance

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers–a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village–will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

About A Fine Balance

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers–a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village–will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

About A Fine Balance

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers–a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village–will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

About A Fine Balance

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers–a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village–will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

Awards

Neustadt International Prize for Literature WINNER 2011

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award FINALIST 1997

Man Booker Prize FINALIST 1996

Praise

"Astonishing. . . . A rich and varied spectacle, full of wisdom and laughter and the touches of the unexpectedly familiar through which literature illuminates life." —Wall Street Journal

"A serious and important work . . . the product of high intelligence and passionate conviction." —New York Review of Books

"Monumental. . . . Few have caught the real sorrow and inexplicable strength of India, the unaccountable crookedness and sweetness, as well as Mistry." –Pico Iyer, Time

"Those who continue to harp on the decline of the novel . . . ought to consider Rohinton Mistry. He needs no infusion of magic realism to vivify the real. The real world, through his eyes, is magical." —The New York Times

About Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry is the author of three novels that were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag.His first novel, Such a Long Journey, won the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers… More about Rohinton Mistry

About Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry is the author of three novels that were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag.His first novel, Such a Long Journey, won the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers… More about Rohinton Mistry

About Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry is the author of three novels that were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag.His first novel, Such a Long Journey, won the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers… More about Rohinton Mistry

About Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry is the author of three novels that were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag.His first novel, Such a Long Journey, won the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers… More about Rohinton Mistry