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A Fine Balance
 
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A Fine Balance (Paperback)

by Rohinton Mistry (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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  • This item: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

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Product details

  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (19 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 057123058X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571230587
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 856 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #3 in  Books > Fiction > World > Canadian

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

In 1975, in an unidentified Indian city, Mrs Dina Dalal, a financially pressed Parsi widow in her early 40s sets up a sweatshop of sorts in her ramshackle apartment. Determined to remain financially independent and to avoid a second marriage, she takes in a boarder and two Hindu tailors to sew dresses for an export company. As the four share their stories, then meals, then living space, human kinship prevails and the four become a kind of family, despite the lines of caste, class and religion. When tragedy strikes, their cherished, newfound stability is threatened, and each character must face a difficult choice in trying to salvage their relationships. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"'One of India's finest living novelists.' Observer"
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A Fine Balance
81% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

120 Reviews
5 star:
 (94)
4 star:
 (15)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (120 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
84 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Balance, 20 May 2006
By E. Hardy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Fine Balance (Paperback)
This is a truly great book. It chronicles the story of 4 individuals from very different sectors of the Indian Caste system.
Not only does it accurately portray the political and social situation in India in the 1970s,it reflects the predudices within the upper castes and the fatalistic attitude of the lower castes, formed from their religious beliefs that suffering is their destiny and the reward will be in the afterlife.
This story is overwhelmingly sad and also shocking as the reader can identify the ethical question of human suffering for a possibly laudable goal (in this case it is population control). However, the novel is also uplifting in a peculiar way; that individuals who struggle so hard to exist in appalling conditions can find joy in their lives is humbling. It also allows the reader to identify with the predudices and to see a situation from another side. Maybe at the end of the book, the reader feels that they have grown a little in spirit and have the capacity to be a 'better' person as a result.
For me, the mark of a great book is one that remains with you long after the back page is read. This is such a book.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite novels ever., 5 Mar 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: A Fine Balance (Perfect Paperback)
This novel is really fabulous. Mistry is a spectacular storyteller with a wonderful way of writing about the minutiae of daily life and weaving it into a wider picture of what was happening in India in the mid 1970s. The story is incredibly depressing - I kept turning the page in the hope that things wouldn't get any worse, but they inevitably did - but the ending provides some sort of closure and a sense of the main characters gaining some happiness in their lives. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. Please read it!
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I could not put this book down!, 10 April 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Fine Balance (Paperback)
By far the best novel I have ever read. It is a joy to envision the milieu for this epic novel. You cannot help but be drawn to the characters and their plight. An often moving and emotional insight into the lives of India's street beggars and an excellent reminder of how deeply the caste system is embedded in this lost society. The portrayal of corruption, inherent at every juncture of 1970-80's India, leaves the reader with a sense of injustice and an added impetus to read on in the hope things may get better. A marvellous and compelling book, and a must on any bookshelf!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid unless prepared to be depressed
Though well written there is no denying the depressing overtone of this book. At no stage does good emerge victorious, in fact any character who might have had some joy is killed... Read more
Published 3 days ago by R. Mehta

2.0 out of 5 stars Review of a Fine Balance
This book has impressed many reviewers (not this one however). The failings can be summed up in the following three points, and explains why this novel is not a masterpiece and... Read more
Published 22 days ago by Ms. S. Ashraf

3.0 out of 5 stars WELL WRITTEN BUT ENDS IN UNREMITTING MISERY
This book is well written, Mistry is a talented writer. But even the way he writes is truly shocking. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Canbel

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance

This is an earth shattering novel, the impact of which I still feel seven years after I first read it. I don't say this lightly. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Karen McCartney

4.0 out of 5 stars Pass me the Prozac
A bleak and brutal portrait of 1970s India, chronicalling the lives of four people thrown together by the curious machinations of fate and Indian society. Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. Wiegersma

4.0 out of 5 stars well written but can leave you despondant
this was given to me by a friend, and let me start by telling you that the content of this book is very very heavy and not at all in any sense a feel good book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bina

5.0 out of 5 stars Every bit as good as they say it is
"A Fine Balance" is truly an exceptional novel that fully justifies the amazing reviews on its back cover. The book is by turns shocking, uplifting and tragic. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Michael Lavocah

5.0 out of 5 stars India Unmasked
Mistry has created a precise slice of Indian life in this wide-ranging, all-encompassing novel. We are at the bottom of the pile and his characters are poor, ever-resourceful... Read more
Published 5 months ago by E. Shaw

4.0 out of 5 stars a sad sroty
Amazon recommended this to me after I bought some other books. I should have read the reviews. It is not that I did not like it but perhaps was not prepared for such a long and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by S. Hill

5.0 out of 5 stars Jude with Heart
There may be a lesson here and it's the same depressing lesson that Thomas Hardy beats the reader with in Jude the Obscure. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Garth Algar

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