Set in Mumbai, the book follows the story of Mohan Karekar, a pensive letter-writer living in the fictional housing complex of Saraswati Park.

Mohan Karekar is a pensive letter-writer who lives with his wife, Lakshmi, in the housing complex of Saraswati Park in suburban Mumbai.

[2] Anna Scott of The Guardian labelled the book "a meticulously written tale of hope and regret" and Sameer Rahim of The Telegraph wrote that Joseph's writing was "well crafted and the images, when they succeed, feel spot-on".

[5] Also that year, the novel won the Desmond Elliott Prize; one of the judges, Edward Stourton, praised Joseph's "extraordinary maturity" and added that it was "hard to believe that it is a first novel".

[6] The novel also won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction, sharing the trophy with Omair Ahmed's Jimmy The Terrorist,[7] and was nominated for The Hindu Literary Prize.