Rohinton Mistry

A fine balance

In India during the mid-1970s, after a "state of internal emergency" is declared, four very different people--a widowed seamstress, a student, and a man and his nephew who have fled their village's caste violence--find their lives becoming inextricably intertwined

A Novel

A Fine Balance

Beth Bartholomew

“Giving up already? That's no way to win in life. Fight and struggle, Om, even if life knocks you around"

The thing with this book is it takes the first couple hundred pages to form a back story, and as the end approaches, everything seems to fit into a fine circle. But that circle is sad and morose. And real. Even in today's world. 'Cruel' could barely define it.

diya

Yash

What an amazing read. Despite it being 600+ pages read, it was pretty fast paced and wonderfully written. I definitely need time to digest and recollect my thoughts. Another 5 star read for me this year.

Prashanth Srivatsa

Probably my last book of the year, and fittingly so. In mourning and criticising and mocking the year that has gone by and our lives entwined in it, A Fine Balance comes to not only sweep you off your feet, but also to slap you hard and make you look around at the misery that we have been spared from. The lives in this story are real, the atrocities committed against them are real, their emotions are real, as are their vices. It is a story of the insignificance of dreams in the face of national turmoil, and through it, Mistry instills in us, unexpected buckets of compassion and tolerance. If you think 2016 was a bad year, read this book.

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.

Vishwa

I kinda don't have words for this book. It was longer than anything I've read in a while, and multiple times I thought it was too much, but the characters kept me reeled in. 

4 primary and several secondary characters interact in a large unnamed city (Bombay) during the course of Indira Gandhi's (also unnamed in the book, but it's pretty clear) time in office. I did not know much about this period in Indian history, but this book presented some plot points that had me shook. And researching on the side.

It's tense. It's sad. It's angering. But if this is real, even for a sliver of the population, which I don't have trouble believing, it's a story we should know. History has been cruel to people.

Caste relations, religious conflict and alliances, progress, chaos, violence, dangerous friendships, hope. It's all here. I cannot recommend this enough, especially for people into modern historical fiction or any interest in modern Indian history. (Though I'd be careful to say here that one should not read it as a historical account.)

Hellboy TCR

Perhaps the best Indian English novel. Mistry is perhaps the best Indian author too.

Set in mid-1970s India, A Fine Balance is a subtle and compelling narrative about four unlikely characters who come together in circumstances no one could have foreseen soon after the government declares a 'State of Internal Emergency'. It is a breathtaking achievement: panoramic yet humane, intensely political yet rich with local delight; and, above all, compulsively readable.

Pratul

If you're from India and parts of the book surprise you, you really should read more about contemporary Indian history, especially 70-80s. Even with possessing a knowledge of India through the 70s, this book is a moving read. It is what most people would agree is a "sad read". 

I enjoyed the writing a lot; the emotions came through strongly and even though there is a sense of detachment, of helplessness throughout the story, I found myself re-reading sentences.

garima mamgain

It took me a long time to finish this longish book. Sometimes the detail to which each of the characters are described can sometimes be overwhelming. But yet each of those details make the characters so real and relatable. Reading this book made me depressed, I started wondering about the sad story of the little boy selling baloons to luckier kids, the people who stay in dharavi which is not even 20 minutes away from Palladium - place where the ultra-rich of Mumbai hang out. 

I could not put down this book since I could not leave the characters alone. But it is so frustrating to realise that nothing much has changed since partition in this country. We will still have villagers moving to the lure of the towns and losing last bit of self respect, we still have the crushing poverty which breaks the soul of even the strongest human beings. 

This book is a must read for those who want to relook at what it truly means to be poor in this country. I now need to read a light hearted happy endng book quickly!!!

Melody Izard

Life for some in India, during The Emergency (probably other times too, but this is the setting of this tale) is a precarious act of survival dependent on tiny nuances and the whims of others. Disturbing images of legless, but jolly beggars mutilated by their loving beggarmasters roll on among the hard-working pavement dwellers and independent women determined to remain independent. And lurking within the humor and loving relationships formed and destroyed is a wicked puff of governmental wind ready to topple any happiness foraged from the stinky street.

taryn

Incredible writing, but it wasn't smart of me to read this during a lockdown. The story is emotionally intense making it hard to read at times, will have to reread another time to fully appreciate the story.

Janet Doré

Wow...this book is an educational and emotional ride through India in the 1970's. The characters are deeply developed and you connect with them as their lives progress. The hopelessness of life in India is conveyed so vividly. By the time I finished, I had even more gratitude for my life in the U.S.

Alawander Bouston 

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry’s stunning internationally acclaimed bestseller, is set in mid-1970s India. It tells the story of four unlikely people whose lives come together during a time of political turmoil soon after the government declares a “State of Internal Emergency.” Through days of bleakness and hope, their circumstances – and their fates – become inextricably linked in ways no one could have foreseen. Mistry’s prose is alive with enduring images and a cast of unforgettable characters. Written with compassion, humour, and insight, A Fine Balance is a vivid, richly textured, and powerful novel written by one of the most gifted writers of our time.

A fine balance

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