A Fine Balance

Set in an unnamed Indian city during the state of emergency of the mid-1970s, Rohinton Mistry’s novel brings together four people forced to share a small apartment: a widow, a student, and two tailors from a lower caste. Through their intertwined lives, Mistry portrays a society strained by poverty, politics, and prejudice, balancing warmth and humor against real cruelty. It is a large, humane book about endurance and the fragile bonds people build.