The classic novel by the author of Diamond Dust evokes the traumatic history of India after the departure of the British in a story of a Hindu family in Old Delhi and the complex relationships that develop among four people. Reprint.

Anita Mazumdar Desai (born June 24, 1937) is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been shortlisted for the Booker prize three times. Her daughter, the author Kiran Desai, won the 2006 Booker prize.