Tales from Firozsha Baag

Rohinton Mistry's A fine Balance is without the doubt the most depressing book I have ever read, but it was also hard not to admire the very good writing and the ability to tell the story exceptionally well.
This one, Tales from Firozaha Baag, is also very well written but also has the addition of humour as well as life events such as disappointments, fears and hopes. In a Bombay apartment block we are told 11 interconnected stories of the majority Parsee inhabitants within, how they lived, how they died and everything in-between.

It would be an understatement to say that I have enjoyed this read, and to use the old cliché, I have not been able to put it down. What I found profoundly superb was that as the 11 tales were told they got stronger and stronger and made one realise that the earlier stories had a part to play in the book as a whole. The interconnectedness of a tribe for good or for bad or for just indifference are played out by the inhabitants of the apartment block, where we get an initial death via murder through to a final start of a new life as a migrant with all the issues that go with that.
A triumph in style and substance by Rohinton Mistry and I will tuck this one away to reread.

Highly recommended.