num_pages: 603
description: 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.
language: English
title: A Fine Balance
titlecomplete: A Fine Balance
characters: Omprakash Darji, Beggar Master, Vasantrao Valmik, Nusswan Shroff, Maneck Kohlah, Rustom Dalal, Thakur Dharamsi, Ishvar Darji, Ashraf Chacha, Shankar, Rajaram, Dina Dalal
genres: Asia, Canada, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Novels, Indian Literature, Literature, India, Fiction
ratings_count: 146476
places: India, Mumbai, South Asia, Bombay
awards: awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, awardedAt: 788947200000
name: Scotiabank Giller Prize, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book Overall, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: CBC Canada Reads, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Dublin Literary Award
category: Shortlist
publisher: Vintage