Fine Balance

Suppose that you were reading a novel about the struggle of a group of people on the margins (economic, racial, religious margins) of society in Hitler's Berlin or Stalin's Moscow, a novel written by a refugee; you wouldn't expect a particularly happy ending would you ? But somehow, even though Rohinton Mistry is a Parsi refugee from India, who moved to Canada in 1975 when Indira Ghandi declared a State of Emergency and assumed sweeping powers, we just aren't prepared for the moment when his narrative of life in Indira's India turns truly dark. …