Recommended by Oprah’s Book Club in 2001, A Fine Balance has been a best-selling audiobook since its creation and its popular author, Rohinton Mistry has received a great deal of acclaim as a result.
This intense novel is set in 1970s India and tells the story of a young widow seamstress, Dina, who finally takes in a boarder after struggling to make rent payments and remain living as an independent woman. The boarder is Maneck, a college student and son of one of Dina’s more affluent childhood friends.
Later she takes on two more boarders, an uncle and nephew named Ishvar and Om who also work for her as tailors. The two tailors were born into the lowest caste, but were able to obtain training to be in the tailoring profession, raising them up significantly from where they began.
The backdrop for this book — India during "The Emergency" of 1975 to 1977 — is a chaotic and exceedingly dangerous place. During this time, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended the rule of law and civil liberties due to rising internal discontent. A forced sterilization program was implemented, slums were torn down, displacing thousands of families and numerous persons were arrested and tortured, seemingly without cause.
In the midst of this turmoil, Dina, Maneck, Ishvar and Om develop close but complex relationships as each struggles to survive. Parts of the audiobook are hopeful and uplifting, but beware: this is not a book for the faint of heart. The characters endure appalling injustices, and for some, every step forward is followed by three steps back. Several reader reviews describe the book as “depressing”, but even these readers consistently rate it at four stars (out of five) or above.
A Fine Balance is a riveting audiobook story that’s hard to forget; you’ll be so taken in by the characters' lives you won’t want to stop listening. And that’s a good thing: the audiobook runs 24 hours and 29 minutes.
Rohinton Mistry was born in India and resides in Canada. A best-selling author, he has often been compared to Charles Dickens.
"Amazing book, funny in many many places but so tragic and unbelievable what happened in their lives and the lives of so many. Beautiful writing, intelligent and heart-rendering. I will not forget this book and the lives of the main characters interwoven through the difficult years they try to survive and I was hoping for a wonderful end but true to the whole book that would have been to simplistic. I was not so prepared for the ending though and that is the style of the writer. I am looking for this book on audio and would love to listen to the whole again. Such insight into the goings on in one country, and the class system that bought so much hatred and senseless killings."
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KDJ (5 out of 5 stars)