An edition of A Fine Balance (1995)

Das Gleichgewicht der Welt

16. Auflage September 2011
  • 4.2 (16 ratings) ·
  • 84 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 25 Have read
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  • 4.2 (16 ratings) ·
  • 84 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 25 Have read

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Last edited by ISBNbot2
July 27, 2021 | History
An edition of A Fine Balance (1995)

Das Gleichgewicht der Welt

16. Auflage September 2011
  • 4.2 (16 ratings) ·
  • 84 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 25 Have read

A Fine Balance is Rohinton Mistry's eagerly awaited second novel and follows his critically acclaimed Such a Long Journey, the book that won three prestigious literary awards in 1991.

Set in India in the mid-1970s, A Fine Balance is a richly textured novel which sweeps the reader up into its special world. Large in scope, the narrative focuses on four unlikely people who come together in a flat in the city soon after the government declares a "State of Internal Emergency." Through days of bleakness and hope, their lives become entwined in circumstances no one could have foreseen.

There is Dina Dalal, a widow who makes a difficult living as a seamstress, determined not to remarry or rely on her brother's charity; Maneck Kohlah, a student from a hillstation near the Himalays, uprooted from home by his parents' wish to send him to college in the city; and Ishvar and his nephew, Omprakash, tailors by trade, who fleeing caste violence, leave their village in the interiour to find employment. The narrative reaches back in time to follow the stories of these four people - the lives they began with, the places they left behind.

This stunning portrayal of a country undergoing change is alive with enduring images; a shopkeeper gazing out over a landscape, once-beloved, now transformed by the smoke of squatters' cooking fires; a helicopter bomarding a political rally with rose petals while the Prime Minister's son floats past in a hot-air balloon; men and women being transported in open trucks to a sterilization clinic; four people tenderly piecing together their history in the squares of a quilt.

Mistry gives us an unforgettable community of characters, among them; Nusswan, a successful businessman and Dina's tyrannical yet well-meaning older brother; Rajaram, the hair-collector, who befriends the two tailors; Beggarmaster, who wheels and deals in human lives; the Potency Peddler, who hawks his wares on market day; Shanti, the young woman who inhabits Omprakash's most heated fantasies; Mr. Valmik, a proofreader who weeps copiously due to an allergy to printing ink; Farokh Kohlah, Maneck's melancholy father, marooned in the past, less and less able to accept the world as it must be.

Mistry brilliantly evokes the novel's several locales, creating scenes of startling brutality as well as moments which inhabit the gentler, more intimate realm of people's lives. Written with compassion, humour and insight into the subtleties of character, the novel explores the abiding strength and fragility of the human spirit.

A Fine Balance confirms Rohinton Mistry's reputation as one of the most gifted fiction writers of today.

Publish Date
Language
German
Pages
862

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Das Gleichgewicht der Welt
Das Gleichgewicht der Welt
2011-09, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag
Taschenbuch in German - 16. Auflage September 2011
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
2004, Rosetta Books
Epub in English
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
2002, Thorndike Press
Hardcover in English - U.S. large print edition
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
2001, Vintage International
Paperback in English
Cover of: A fine Balance
A fine Balance: a novel
2001 November, Alfred A. Knopf
Hardcover in English - First American Edition, Fourth Printing
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
1997, Faber and Faber, Faber & Faber
Paperback in English
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
1997-03, Vintage International
Paperback in English
Cover of: A  fine balance
A fine balance
1997, Emblem
in English - Trade paperback ed.
Cover of: A fine balance
A fine balance
1996-01-01, Knopf
Cover of: A fine balance
A fine balance
1996, Faber
in English
Cover of: A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
1995, McClelland & Stewart
Hardcover in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Series
Fischer TB 14583
Copyright Date
1995, 1998
Translation Of
A Fine Balance
Translated From
English

Contributors

Translator
Matthias Müller

The Physical Object

Format
Taschenbuch
Number of pages
862

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL31826490M
ISBN 13
9783596145836

Excerpts

The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed.
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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
July 27, 2021 Edited by ISBNbot2 normalize ISBN
December 24, 2020 Edited by indy133 Added new cover
December 24, 2020 Edited by indy133 new edition
December 24, 2020 Created by indy133 Added new book.