[5] The novel follows Krishan, a young man working for a non-government organisation (NGO) in contemporary Colombo who makes a journey to the north of Sri Lanka – the former civil war battleground, to attend the cremation of his grandmother's former caretaker, Rani.

[8] Krishan is pre-occupied and his thoughts go back and forth between Rani's depression, caused by the loss of her two sons, and his past relationship with Anjum.

[6] The narrative includes elaborate digressions on famous works – that reviewers have characterised as Proustian[10] – on Kalidasa's epic Sanskrit poem The Cloud Messenger, on the tale of a poor Shiva devotee who builds a grand temple for his lord within his mind from the Tamil Periya Puranam, and on the documentary film My Daughter the Terrorist.

[7] Lucy Popescu of The Observer described the book as "another profound meditation on suffering but, this time, Arudpragasam's Tamil narrator is at a distance, struggling with survivor's guilt and war's aftermath.

"[11] The Guardian writer Marcel Theroux wrote a more critical review, describing the protagonist as being "frustratingly passive" whose musings and reminiscences comprise the bulk of the book.