ISBN: 9780571230556

Synopsis Nariman Vakeel, a 79-year-old Parsi widower, beset by Parkinson’s disease and haunted by memories of the past, lives in a once-elegant apartment with his two middle-aged stepchildren. When his condition worsens he is forced to take up residence with Roxana, his own daughter, her husband, Yezad, and their two young sons. The effect of the new responsibility on Yezad, who is already besieged by financial worries, pushes him into a scheme of deception.

This sets in motion a series of events – a great unravelling and a revelation of the family’s love-torn past that leads to the narrative’s final outcome.

Bookclub Review Family Matters by
This is an epic family drama set in Bombay (Mumbai), India in the 1990s. The grandfather is in mental decline as he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. One evening he goes for a walk only to be carried home with a broken ankle. As his increased dependence places additional pressures on his children the family’s fault lines begin to move.

What the group thought:
The demands this book places on the reader, in terms of level of engagement and the emotional turbulence of the plot, is demonstrated by the physical turn out at the book club discussion. Those that had completed reading it made for an energetic discussion and scored the book 4 out of 5 – not bad! But the turnout was low with those could not get into it, or didn’t enjoy it, simply didn’t make it on the night. The book club has been divided before but never quite in this way. Those who did read Family Matters saw it as an epic drama of immense sweep and proportion, written in a calm matter-of-fact way depicting very real pressures on a family in difficulties and with, in turn, very human reactions to this situation. Criticisms were around its occasional slow-pace and long windedness which do at times require the reader to trust that the narrator is indeed leading the story somewhere. If you are looking for a rich, multi-layered story and can dedicate time and patience to this tale then you will be rewarded.