Read of the Week: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Our latest Read of the Week comes from London Course Leader Penny who recommends A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

“The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter there will be no room for crying.” - Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

Set in India between 1975 to 1984, a young widow, a struggling student and two impoverished tailors are drawn together and torn apart through changing personal and political situations.

It introduced me to a place and a time that I knew very little about, and lots of moments have stayed with me for years - moments of beauty, or suffering, of kindness, of change.

The writing is very vivid and it has an almost Dickensian cast of characters. Reading it in a group we were very glad to have each other through the hard times and the good.

“Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.” - Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance