In his younger days, Alfred Hughes had been quite the Nineties revolutionary athis university in England, clad in faded army fatigues and smoking Cuban cigars. They called him Ché Freddo.

His comrades-in-arms were Nido-Nitin-sonof divorced Indian immigrants, and Eugenia-ardent admirer of Sylvia Plath,who believed that one had to sacrifice everything for a cause, be fearless indeath. Into this mix came Anju Kale, of British-Asian heritage, the only child of adisheartened Indian Marxist father and a submissive, but wealthy, English mother,and her entry into this tightly-knit group caused all equations to shift and change.

As time goes by, Freddo gives up revolution for the security of a collegeprofessorship, Nido for a job at Goldman Sachs. Anju marries Freddo and triesto come to terms with his serial philandering, in a marriage precariously heldtogether by middle-class sensibilities.

And the devastating secret about whathappened to Eugenia. Until Anju too finds herself caught in an extra-marital relationship.

Trappedbetween the need for fulfilment and a love of stability, Anju must redefine what itmeans to be a family. In prose that is lyrical and beguiling, Selma Carvalho weaves a story about amarriage that is tender, startling and wise in turn.

This masterful work from the author of the remarkable fiction debut, Sisterhood ofSwans, confirms Carvalho's place in the literary firmament. .