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A Fine Balance

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A Fine Balance

By: Rohinton Mistry
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
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About this listen

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.

©1995 Rohinton Mistry (P)2018 Audible, Inc. Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction South Asian Creators Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Friendship
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This is one of the best audio books I have ever read.
I have traveled widely in India and it strikes such a cord with my experiences.
The writing is wonderfully rich and the language so well observed. As the story unfolds you find yourself immersed in the lives of these rich characters. It was so moving it’s hard to describe. The narrator was excellent and his clever characterisation of each person was so amazing.

I have a photo of a very young beggar child I took when I visited Delhi. He sleeps on the road side clutching his day’s wares. A few cheap biros for sale. The back drop is the array of luxury hotels off Connaught place.
It reminds me to give thanks for my very privileged life in the west.

read and enjoy

Outstanding

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A nuanced account of how ‘democracy’ fails the the common people, the heart of any society

A must listen

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Lived the book - love/hate India. Ah India the place of colour. An amazing people an amazing diverse country.
Excellentky narrated. Probably the best so far!

So Real So Sad

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I actually listened to this about 2 years ago - but the novel is very fresh and vivid in my memory. It is a novel about a very painful subject and a time in India when truly dreadful things happened if you found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The characters are so compassionately drawn - particularly the two tailors. But there is an amazing lightness of touch because of the resilience and humour of the characters - and their ability to survive the very worst of circumstances. And the relationship between the Beggar King and his son is so moving. I would love to read more novels by this author.

A wonderful novel

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This is certainly a big book - full of colour, movement, action, engaging characters, powerful themes. It makes for very gripping listening, excellently interpreted by Vikas Adam. After a while, one feels that certain scenes are included as part of the polemic, or almost for "educational" purposes - to illustrate various parts of society during the period. But they are all so well depicted, and the story is so rich and captivating, that you are perfectly happy to go along with it. Beautifully constructed and masterfully crafted - an outstanding book.

compelling drama animating historical critique

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