What happens when one attempts to exchange the life one is given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into?

In this stunning novel, prize-winning author Neel Mukherjee wrests open the central, defining events of our century: displacement and migration. Five characters, in very different circumstances --- from a domestic cook in Mumbai, to a vagrant and his dancing bear to a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city --- find out the meanings of dislocation and the desire for more.

Set in contemporary India and moving between the reality of this world and the shadow of another, this novel of multiple narratives --- formally daring, fierce but full of pity --- delivers a devastating and haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life.

Audiobook available, read by Sartaj Gerewal