The novel won the Scotiabank Giller Prize that year and narrates a story of Vikram Lall in the colonial and post-colonial Kenya.

Because of Vikram's particular attachment to Annie, he remains affected by her death even until adulthood, especially because he secretly witnesses Mahesh stealing Ashok's gun to give to the rebels.

While Vik begins as a railway inspector, he finds himself moving up in the bureaucratic ladder as his superiors take advantage of his status as an Asian man in Africa - having neither native African roots nor strong ties to the former British rule - to fuel their increasingly corrupt activities as a middleman who takes bribes and launders currency.

Though he succeeds in obtaining Joseph's release, Vik's chance for a fresh start is overturned when the investigating committee is abruptly dissolved and he is left vulnerable to his enemies hoping to keep their corruption secret.

With his lawyer arrested, Vikram is left in hiding when his apartment building is set ablaze, leaving his fate ambiguous.

[6] Novelist Sandra Hunter writing for The Guardian included the book in top 10 list revolving around Indian families.

[7] Helon Habila of The Guardian notes that the novel's first part is slow in pace but it is about political and personal survival and is "a good example of how the post-colonial novel should be written, dispassionately, avoiding the easy pitfalls of nostalgia and essentialism".

[9] Tara Sehgal of India Today mentions that "Though issues of race, class, identity and belonging loom large and politics permeates every page, [the novel] is also simply a "life and times" story of Vic [aka Vikram]".

The awards were adjudged by Canadian jurist Rosalie Abella, critic and writer David Staines, and author and professor Rudy Wiebe.