Winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and short-listed for the Booker, Mistry's first novel is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novels. Set against the turbulent politics in 1971 Bombay, this is the story of Gustad Noble, a dedicated and somewhat innocent bank clerk, who finds his familial and professional life unravelling as his son rejects filial piety, his best friend involves him in political intrigue, and his own rationality and morality confront a world of change.