There's even a touch of magical realism – Miss Cameron is a birdwatcher, and foreign creatures such as quetzals and kookaburras appear briefly in the trees outside her home.

It starts a bit slowly and I wasn't quite as impressed by the descriptions of late 20th century England as I was by those of early 20th century India, but I was quickly drawn into this storyline as well, as Ritwik outstays his visa and falls into the murky worlds of sex for cash and the black economy, while his hostess Anne Cameron, even at the age of 86, remains far more aware of the world around her than he first gives her credit for. That's not to put down the main part of the book, Ritwik's story, which is also very well written. Similarly, the main three characters, of Miss Gilby, her student Bimala, and Bimala's husband Mr Roy Chowdhury are vividly brought to life, and I'd happily have read a full length novel centred on the trio. Her narrative takes up perhaps a third of the book's length, and is never less than enthralling, with the customs and rules of colonial India being described really well. Miss Gilby becomes English teacher to Bimala, the wife of a minor official in 1900's Bengal just before the Partition of the province.Ī Life Apart flips backwards and forwards between the two stories, Nitwik's own and the novel he's writing, and while they're both certainly interesting, my only complaint is that the tale of Miss Gilby was so compelling I wished more time had been spent on it. He also writes a novel - the extended story of Miss Gilby, a character in Rabindranath Tagore's novel Ghare Baire. There, he looks after 86 year old Anne Cameron in exchange for free accommodation, while looking for work, and for sexual encounters with other men. In the 1990's, finally escaping the country after her death, he comes to England to study at Oxford, then moves to London.

Ritwik Ghosh grows up in India in the 1970's, one of two children of an abusive mother. Summary: An accomplished story of lonely immigrants set in both 1900's India and 1990's England.

A life apart by neel mukherjee