2006-01-10 Excellent book club read!

Firozsha Baag is a block of flats in Bombay and these linked stories, eleven of them, tell the tales of its tenants. They are seen through the eyes of Kersi, first as a boy living with his parents and brother in the flats, and finally as a writer who has emigrated to Canada. These stories are so intimate, I sometimes felt uncomfortable, as if I were seeing things I shouldn't see, laughing at things I shouldn't laugh at. The writing is wonderful and cannot be skipped over. Every word counts. That and the writer's humanity made me keep reading to the end and then start at the beginning again - and order more of his books.