This is one of the best books I have read in recent times. It is gripping from the Prologue onwards. The author has an excellent insight into the life of the impoverished millions in India. However rather than gloating on the poverty of the people he brings out their maganimous and generous nature. The excesses of the Emergency are exposed all through the book, yet there was not one page where one could say the author was exaggerating. All that happened during the Emergency, the year of darkness in India's democratic history. The story with all its diverse threads come together in a respendant quilt much like the one put together by Dina Dalal. It is tragic and ends sadly but it makes you laugh all the way through. Some book. Hats off to Rohinton and eagerly awaiting the next one.