This is the second fiction work by Arundhati Roy after her brilliantly written ‘The God of Small Things’, but even after all these years her penmanship retains its capacity to enthral the readers. The novel of such an unusual name carries within its pages equally amusing characters and story,

The novels opens with the birth of Aftab on a cold January night in the walled city of Shahjahanabad. The circumstances in which he was born and the people in his surroundings doesn’t seem to have a place for someone like him. Indeed, he finds his own community in due course of time and thus begins the journey of Anjum.

Anjum is living and thriving in her own people, she has finally found a place where she truly belongs which reassures her albeit for a limited time. However, all this seems to change once she adopts an orphan and tries to make best of God’s blessings by fulfilling her wish to be a mother. This change eventually leads her to go on a pilgrimage that alters her life dramatically and ultimately she takes the extreme decision of forking out an independent life of her own. That leads us to an old graveyard and then to the Jannat Guest House.

The story then moves to the intertwined lives of four friends who after crossing paths in their college years, keep on orbiting each other’s lives for the next three decades. Just like those three friends throughout the years have been, the readers also become fascinated by Tilottama. From here onwards the pace of this novel seems to slow down a bit as we get more and more insights into her relationship with Musa and the cursed heaven to which they owe their loyalty.

Finally these two tracks of Anjum and Tilo come together once she decides to settle down at the Jannat Guest House with Miss Jebeen the second. Still, her mysterious presence lingers on the minds of these three men who love her in their own ways after all these years.

The strength of this book lies in the author’s enormous capacity to turn prose into poetry. It is because of her prowess over words that readers’ attention doesn’t waver for almost 450 pages of this book. Although this novel tries to pack too much within such a simple plot line- from Kinnar to Kashmir, still it successfully manages to keep readers engaged throughout the tumultuous journey of its main characters.

At time it gives us the feeling of packing contemporary history lessons in a novel format narrated by the author’s voice. It’s like talking from a point of view of an essayist who explains the crucial events which have altered the course of this history for her country. Having said that, it certainly serves as a valuable resource to understand the background and progression of her characters over the years.

A book worthy of all the praises and definitely a recommended read for all kinds of readers who would like to read a captivating story.