Set in mid-1970s India, A Fine Balance is a subtle and compelling narrative about four unlikely characters who come together in circumstances no one could have foreseen soon after the government declares a State of Internal Emergency. It is a breathtaking achievement: panoramic yet humane, intensely political yet rich with local delight; and, above all, compulsively read Set in mid-1970s India, A Fine Balance is a subtle and compelling narrative about four unlikely characters who come together in circumstances no one could have foreseen soon after the government declares a State of Internal Emergency. It is a breathtaking achievement: panoramic yet humane, intensely political yet rich with local delight; and, above all, compulsively readable. --faber.co.uk