New York: Harper & Row, (1980) dj. Hardcover first edition - A lyrical, deeply atmospheric family drama which was the first of her novels to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize and more recently included in the 2022 UK's 'Big Jubilee Read' list. Desai commented it "is fiction, but in a way the most autobiographical [novel] I wrote." Desai was a young girl in India when Partition took place. The memories and sense of that time, both before and after the British cleaved India into pieces before leaving, inform the novel. It follows Tara, who is revisiting her childhood home in Delhi. While her life has changed - sheÕs the wife of a diplomat - her brother and sister, in their shabby house with its neglected garden, seem almost stuck in time. 183 pp. ISBN: 0-0601094x.