The Best and Worst of Friends Till the End

Amrita Mahale's new novel 'Real Life' explores the unlikely friendship between two women with varying degrees of success

- Somak Ghoshal

Amrita Mahale's debut novel, Milk Teeth, was set in Bombay (now Mumbai) of the 1990s. It followed the ups and downs of a close-knit Goud Saraswat Brahmin community in Matunga, a quiet downtown suburb back in the day, through the shifting dynamics of its central characters, Ira and Kartik. Her story went beyond feel-good nostalgia to dive into the impact of economic liberalization on urban middle-class Indians, the values and morals they shed, and the ones they held on to. In the process, Milk Teeth became a novel about big ideas like the conflict between tradition and modernity, pieced together through small moments of epiphany.

Real Life, Mahale's much-awaited new novel that has been six years in the making, moves away from the earlier terrain. While parts of the story still unfold in cities, Mumbai and Delhi in this case, most of it takes place far above the plains, in the fictional "Mahamaya Valley" in the Himalayas. Like a good sophomore novel, Real Life tries its best to steer clear of its predecessor and pitches itself as a literary mystery (though it borrows its mode of storytelling through multiple voices from Milk Teeth). This claim isn't necessarily untrue, but Real Life doesn't tick the usual boxes of what the reader may understand by a "mystery". Instead, Mahale sticks to her strengths by deciding to focus on her characters—and exploring the peculiar forces that come together to sustain an unlikely friendship.