Gustad Noble is a decent, proud bank clerk living with his wife Dilnavaz and three children in the Khodadad Building, a Parsi apartment block in Bombay. In 1971 a letter arrives from Major Jimmy Bilimoria, a friend who vanished years earlier, asking Gustad to deposit a large sum of money on behalf of a secret government operation linked to the coming war over East Pakistan.
As Gustad tries to do his duty, his household is fraying: his eldest son Sohrab refuses the IIT place his father dreamed of, his daughter falls ill, and Dilnavaz turns to a neighbour's spells for help. Around them the building's eccentrics, including a pavement artist who paints gods on a wall, give the novel warmth and comedy.
Mistry's first novel draws on the real Nagarwala bank fraud case and is affectionate about Parsi Bombay while sceptical of power. It won the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book and was shortlisted for the Booker; a film version appeared in 1998.
Book details
| Author | Rohinton Mistry |
|---|---|
| First published | 1991 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 339 |
| Setting | Khodadad Building, Bombay, 1971 |
| Awards | Governor General's Award 1991, Commonwealth Writers' Prize 1992 |
Themes
- Fathers and sons
- Friendship and betrayal
- Political corruption
- Parsi community
- Faith
Who should read it
Readers who enjoy warm, character-rich domestic novels with a political mystery underneath.