Such a Long Journey

Such a Long Journey is an intricately layered, wryly humorous novel set in Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over the fate of what was to become Bangladesh. A hard working bank clerk, Gustad Noble, is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter, Roshan, falls ill in spite of his and his wife's ministrations; his promising son defies reasonable voice amid the ongoing dramas of his habitually quarrelsome neighbours.


One day Gustad receives a letter from an old friend, now working for a CIA-like branch of Indira Gandhi's government asking him to help in what seems like a heroic mission. In his innocence, and with feelings of loyalty to his friend, Gustad uneasily agrees. He soon finds himself over his head and alone in his unwitting complicity as he is drawn deeper into a dangerous network of deception.


Gustad's quiet dignity, his sense of moral order, have luminous presence in the sometimes antique world of his friends and acquaintances including the medicine lady, Miss Kutpitia, who suggests elaborate medical spells; the lame and child-like Tehmul; Dinshawji, Gustad's bumptious co-worker and friend, whose flirtation with the new typist goes too far.


Compassionate, broad in its vision, and rich in details of character and place, this is a mature and rewarding saga that charts the journey of a moral heart in a turbulent world of change.