during my stay in India I have read a lot of books by Those very gifted contemporary Indian authours like Rushdie, Kiran, Gosh, Suri among others.
A fine balance is one of the most beautiful, terrific, hilarious and epic of all of them.
There are a lot of reviews already did try to recommend That book - I strongly support them.
In case somebody is searching for others intelligent and interesting, humorous and sad books I highly recommend "The Age of Shiva" by Manil Suri, too.
I loved that book almost the same way I did and do "a fine balance".
in my opinion, the intelligent, sad but hilarious at the same time, and profound descriptions of situations, moments and people by Indian authors is kind of unique in the English speaking literature of our times.
I want to read a fine balance and the Age of Shive many, many times and want to dive into the sophisticated world of Indian novels again and again ...
enojoy!