Tara, married to a diplomat and living abroad, returns with her family for a summer visit to the house in Old Delhi where she grew up. Her elder sister Bim still lives there, teaching history at a college and caring for their brother Baba, who has an intellectual disability and spends his days listening to old records.
The novel moves back to the 1940s, when the siblings' parents were distant, an aunt raised them, and their brother Raja, a lover of Urdu poetry, fell ill and later left for Hyderabad to marry into a Muslim family. Bim has never quite forgiven him, and the story slowly uncovers how each sibling remembers those years differently.
Anita Desai's prose is precise and luminous, alive to heat, gardens and the slow decay of a house. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1980, it is often regarded as her finest novel, a study of time, family loyalty and forgiveness set against the upheaval of 1947.
Book details
| Author | Anita Desai |
|---|---|
| First published | 1980 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 183 |
| Setting | Old Delhi, the 1940s and the 1970s |
Themes
- Sisterhood
- Memory and time
- Forgiveness
- Partition
- Duty
Who should read it
Readers who appreciate introspective family novels with exquisite, atmospheric prose.