A Fine Balance is the second novel by Rohinton Mistry, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1995. Set in "an unidentified city" in India, initially in 1975 and later in 1984 during the turmoil of The Emergency, the book focuses on four characters from varied backgrounds – Dina Dalal, Ishvar Darji, his nephew Omprakash Darji, and the young student Maneck Kohlah – who come together and develop a bond. The novel won the 1995 Giller Prize. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996. It was one of the only two Canadian books selected for Oprah's Book Club, and was one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of Canada Reads, championed by actress Megan Follows. In 2014, A Fine Balance was ranked in The Telegraph as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. Emma-Lee Potter of The Independent listed it as the book with the strongest prose and character development out of 12 Indian novels "that everyone needs to read." An acclaimed stage adaptation of the novel by the Tamasha Theatre Company was produced at the Hampstead Theatre in London in 2006 and later revived in 2007. Reception Brooke Allen, writing for the Atlantic in 2002, noted that this was the first book by Mistry which went out of his familiar circle of Parsi characters and aimed at describing the whole Indian society. Whereas the main characters suffer a lot in the book, and all of them in the end lose, throughout the book they continue laughing, and the book is not perceived as tragic. She also mentions that Mistry's use of big metaphors makes the novel reminiscent of great 19th-century authors. On the other hand, Shankar Vedantam, writing in 1996 for the Chicago Tribune, while praising Mistry's storytelling and love for detail, criticized his broad vision of the Indian society as too negative and complained that Mistry shows too much despair in the novel. On top of many newspapers and magazines writing about the book, there book also became subject of academic research highlighting certain aspects. Plot summary The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency declared by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. She, however, is never referred to by name by any of the characters, and is instead called simply "the Prime Minister". The characters, from diverse