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A Fine Balance cover art

A Fine Balance

By: Rohinton Mistry
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
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Publisher's Summary

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers - a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village - will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future. 

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

©1995 Rohinton Mistry (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about A Fine Balance

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  • T
  • 25-04-2019

Brilliant story of humanity really well told

I love this book. Read it 20 years ago and am so impressed with the audio version. Extraordinary depth of characters and perspectives. Each person truly came to life to share their view on reality, a multitude of realities.

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5 people found this helpful

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Just Wow

An epic tale of the ilk of Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriela Garcia Marquez- the tragedies and beauty of life in caste system India with 4 central loveable characters from different castes that end up living under one roof.
Utter tragedy. Humour , History- it has it all.
The narration is simply a mind boggling masterpiece!
I feel empty now the story is over - I e loved every one of the many many minutes of this long story and miss it. The characters and their stories whirl around in my head says after.

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4 people found this helpful

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Wonderful book

I absolutely loved this book. It was beautiful the way all the characters were described and introduced. Sad in places but still presented with dignity. We got a very good picture of the political and social feel of the times.
Very well written.

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4 people found this helpful

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Uplifting and heartbreaking. This beautiful book is a must read before traveling to India!

I listened to this book before traveling to India and it opened my eyes to the lives of everyday people and the impact of the caste system.

The novel tells the story of many seemingly different characters who are all victims of the society they live in.

A beautiful book that will leave you speechless for days to come!

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Bkr
  • 15-03-2019

More than a Novel an Experience

This is a wonderful book, educational, entertaining, very funny at times, but also a harrowing story of the injustice, brutality and greed in India at a particular time. I wanted it to never end.

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3 people found this helpful

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Classic Novel set in India 1970’d

Happy, sad. Violent. Frustrating, heartbreaking, funny, determined. I enjoyed this novel very much. I’m sad it’s finished. I have the book at home and shall reread it, as I now know how to pronounce the names of the characters properly

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2 people found this helpful

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Still one of my favorite books

I read this book years ago. I had forgotten so much of the details in the story, but not the gut retching agony of the beautiful written (and read) tale. Humans truly are exceptional beings, at both ends of the scale.

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2 people found this helpful

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India

This book showed me a history of an India I hadn't been able to grasp as a tourist. I've told all my friends who have been to india, are going to india or are Indian, to read it.

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This shows a society at its worst.

This is a awfully long story that is really rather sad and makes you wonder how a society can do things to its own. I was always surprised how the author could find ways to sink us lower.

Although the main protagonists try to be genuinely positive, some actions don't surprise you at all in the end.

It left me dumbfounded.

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Brilliant

I loved it. It's so sad and terrible that it's a true story. A brilliant reading very enjoyable.

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  • Sarah
  • 14-07-2020

Magnificent book

Simply wonderful. The narrator is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL. No more words needed. Just listen, you won’t regret it.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 25-06-2020

Magnificent!

loved every moment if this complex intriguing account of the tragic lives of ordinary citizens and how their lives were woven together. victims of circumstances. wonderful narration brings the characters and scenes to life.

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  • Cari Batenburg
  • 12-08-2022

Extraordinary, poignant, beautiful, heartbreaking

This book was recommended to me and after sitting in my Audible library for a few months, I finally started listenting. And oh my gosh, from the opening sentences on, I was hooked. Every spare moment I had, I would return to the worlds of the characters, finding myself exclaiming in pleasure, in shock, in reverence, and at times in horror and sadness. This is surely a masterpiece.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • ros
  • 31-10-2019

What a book!

A funny, sad, heartwarming, heartbreaking triumph! I loved the pictures, the sounds and the smells and emotions Rohinton’s writing brings to his readers.

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  • Carla
  • 19-04-2019

Life is SUCH a fine balance

But these characters experience the full measure of the balance or imbalance... it is a moving tale of what life in India was for most middle /lower class citizens during the turbulent ‘70’s ... well told, well developed characters and a full circle story. It is WELL WORTH your time and credit!!!

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  • jaspal singh
  • 14-01-2019

wow

loved it...will miss all the character after finish. awesome story ...a nice book to listen

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  • Miriam Burke
  • 03-10-2022

A fabulous read

Possibly the best book I have ever read. Heartbreaking and warming in equal measure. Memorable!

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  • Sufian
  • 10-08-2022

Heart-ripping

Brilliant storytelling. Brilliant narrator. The story will make you cry and crave for more.

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  • Namrata Sharma
  • 10-02-2022

Lost of words

I am full of sadness and will recover I know but the miseries of human life in scarcity of resources has turned my heart but worse is how human rights are violated and who is there if you have no one . Is that justice ? Is there god ? Yes there is or May be not …..
Story was so fine balanced and the narration excellent . Would like to listen more from Rohinton Mistry

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  • Kindra Pekay
  • 18-08-2021

what a gem

the entire human emotional gamut lives in every page of this extraordinary story. Narrated superbly! don't miss it

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  • Jane Showering
  • 16-10-2018

My favourite book ever

Sadly this book was such a compulsive read/listen that it lasted just a few days!
I loved the plot, the narration, the characters, alongside giving such a detailed insight into life in India in those days.
I cried and I laughed, laughing alot more than crying tho the story is tragic, there were so very many light and kind touches throughout.
I am bereft to have finished it and more so that no more substantial reads by this master storyteller are available on audio

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75 people found this helpful

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  • Christopher Hegan
  • 26-03-2019

Picaresque, epic scale, a Mahabharata for modern times.

This is one of the most extraordinary works to come my way in some time. The odyssey of two simple (very simple) tailors who step out of their caste, their destiny and into a poignant journey through India’s painful post-partum emergence. And Emergency. It is also an excoriating indictment of the Gandhi family’s grip on the country for two generations. Horror, brutality and corruption abound. And yet... Mistry’s vision is more complex than some black and white morality tale. I was reminded of the old aphorism that desperate times call for desperate measures. No simple answers emerge. At its heart however this is no political rant, but the interwoven stories of simple people who, if you have a heart, you will end up loving. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

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39 people found this helpful

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  • Neil Bottle
  • 09-02-2019

Outstanding

This is one of the best audio books I have ever read.
I have traveled widely in India and it strikes such a cord with my experiences.
The writing is wonderfully rich and the language so well observed. As the story unfolds you find yourself immersed in the lives of these rich characters. It was so moving it’s hard to describe. The narrator was excellent and his clever characterisation of each person was so amazing.

I have a photo of a very young beggar child I took when I visited Delhi. He sleeps on the road side clutching his day’s wares. A few cheap biros for sale. The back drop is the array of luxury hotels off Connaught place.
It reminds me to give thanks for my very privileged life in the west.

read and enjoy

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35 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 27-08-2018

Wonderful mix of history and story!

I loved this book but found it hard to deal with the cruelty and the fact there was little redemption or any happy endings. Couldn't stop listening.
Loved the history of India in this period and the wonderful noble and tragic characters.

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20 people found this helpful

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  • GarthK
  • 24-09-2019

The Least of These.

I am astounded by the level and quality of this narration! A story that unwinds as it reels you in. I felt that I walked with the characters, understood them and experienced their lives intimately. The story is simple but the levels of complexity embedded in human societal structures and consequent behaviour left me exhilarated and at times hollowed out. If this book speaks to your sense of humanity, follow it up with the film, Article 15. I highly recommend this book!

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19 people found this helpful

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  • laineya
  • 20-10-2018

Perfect!

What can I say? I’ve been waiting for the audio version of this book for what seems like years. This version was well worth the wait.

This is such a wonderful tale, full of characters who you come to love with their stories woven together like Dina Dalal’s patchwork quilt. If you enjoyed the book you’ll love the audio version and if you haven’t read the book then don’t wait!!

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15 people found this helpful

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  • Hayley M
  • 04-01-2019

Gripping and Tragic - Must read!

A beautiful piece full of heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. Wonderful narration, listened to the whole thing in three days!

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13 people found this helpful

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  • Lotika Singha
  • 29-07-2018

A must listen

A nuanced account of how ‘democracy’ fails the the common people, the heart of any society

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13 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 13-10-2019

So Real So Sad

Lived the book - love/hate India. Ah India the place of colour. An amazing people an amazing diverse country.
Excellentky narrated. Probably the best so far!

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9 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 02-05-2019

Re-listen and well worth it

I loved this just as much the second time around. Epic story, so beautifully written.

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