A vast, sweeping epic set in India during the Emergency of 1975–77, when Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties and ruled by decree. Four characters — a Parsi widow, her student nephew, and two lower-caste tailors fleeing the violence of their village — are thrown together in a cramped Mumbai apartment, each trying to survive in a country that seems designed to crush people like them.

Mistry writes in the tradition of Dickens: the cast is enormous, the plotting intricate, and the world he conjures — of poverty, corruption, the caste system and everyday brutality — is rendered with extraordinary detail and compassion. It is not a comfortable read. The novel does not flinch, and its characters suffer terribly. But it is also full of warmth, dark humour and hard-won moments of grace.

One of the great novels about modern India, and a book that earns its length.