A Fine Balance: A Novel
Jul 2010 · Sold by Vintage
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BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • “Monumental . . . Few have caught the real sorrow and inexplicable strength of India, the unaccountable crookedness and sweetness, as well as Mistry.”—Pico Iyer, Time
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE, AND GILLER PRIZE
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.
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE, AND GILLER PRIZE
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.
BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • “Monumental . . . Few have caught the real sorrow and inexplicable strength of India, the unaccountable crookedness and sweetness, as well as Mistry.”—Pico Iyer, Time
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE, AND GILLER PRIZE
With a compassi...
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Ratings and reviews
30 reviews
A Google user
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November 22, 2010
This is one of my all-time favorite books. It haunts me. I try and find similar books - the depth of characters, the setting, so far from my own experiences yet described in such a way that I am there, the engrossing plot - nothing compares. Engrossing, moving, powerful - it has stayed with me all of these years later. MIstry is a master story-teller.
A Google user
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November 21, 2013
One of my favorite books. A great read. This book really draws you in to the lives of the characters & then spits you out unapologetically in the end. I love this book. Rohinton Mistry is a great author & I've read two of his other of his books and was not disappointed.
Derek Ables
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February 25, 2026
one of my favorite books that I have read throughout the last several years. cannot recommend enough wish I could add to my collection but too expensive
About the author
Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay and now lives near Toronto. His first novel, Such a Long Journey, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and received, among other awards, the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book of the Year. A Fine Balance is his second novel, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction, the Giller Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize as well as a Booker Prize finalist. Mistry is also the author of Swimming Lessons, a collection of short stories.
Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay and now lives near Toronto. His first novel, Such a Long Journey, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and received, among other awards, the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book of the Year. A Fine Balance is his second novel...
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