"Those who continue to harp on the decline of the novel ought to . . . consider Rohinton Mistry," wrote the New York Times. “He needs no infusion of magic realism to vivify the real. The real world, through his eyes, is magical.” Indo-Canadian novelist Rohinton Mistry has only written three novels, and has been shortlisted for Booker all three times.

A Fine Balance is his second novel, set in Bombay during the turmoil of the Emergency and brings together four mismatched strangers – two tailors, a widow and a student – under a humble, decrepit roof. Soon the empty apartment turns into a full home and the strangers into a family. Each one of them is escaping from their cruel circumstances, hoping to retain their human spirit in the most inhuman state.

A Fine Balance won the Giller Prize in 1995. It was successfully produced on stage at the Hampstead Theatre in London in 2006 and a three-part dramatisation of the acclaimed novel was aired on BBC Radio 4 from March 22 to April 5, 2015.

Published in 1995.