Caste and class An epic, tightly plotted and powerful journey through three different interpretations of India where shadows linger and tensions rise

Devika Rege's debut is not a definitive state-of-the-nation novel. Nor can it be characterised as the next "great Indian novel", although it holds greatness within its pages.

- Sana Goyal

This chorus of the collective contains a multitude of ideologies and perspectives.

It is 2014, and the Bharat party - a thinly veiled version of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP is newly in power. It was a choice between "the weak governance" of the preceding ruling party, synonymous with decades of corruption, "and fascism", and India has voted in favour of the rightwing party promising to clean the Ganga River, holy to the Hindu majority.

The novel opens with the homecoming of Naren Agashe, who has found that, after years as a Wall Street consultant, his "existence in America is like bread gone stale". He doesn't see it as going back home to Bombay, as the city is called here: "Going back is the wrong word, the word is forward..." A new India is on the horizon, full of ambition and potential, and he wants to be at the centre when it all comes together. In every country's life, says Naren, "there comes a golden generation that will ride its transformation into a modern state. That means they will make wealth in a way neither their fathers could nor their sons will."