I confess that I didn’t think too deeply about this book. I just enjoyed it. It was a multigenerational story of life based in the Kalimpong region of Indian, just over the border with Nepal. Themes of estrangement, and nationalism, and loss across the generations - they are everywhere. But it’s really the characters which carry this story in which yes, things happen, but they are not quite so important as where they happen and the way they’re described. Probably I’m not doing the story enough justice, except to allow that yes, it’s a tremendous picture of life in a certain slice of India in the mid-80s. I’d certainly recommend a read.