4th Estate
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2016
Copyright © Anjali Joseph 2016
Anjali Joseph asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover photographs: © Suparat Malipoom / EyeEm / Getty Images (top); © Rahul Kattayil / Getty Images (bottom)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Source ISBN: 9780007462841
Ebook Edition © March 2016 ISBN: 9780007462827
Version: 2017-05-26
To my parents
The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
Bhagavad Gita, 2.11,
translated by Swami Sivananda
Contents
Chapter 1: A long way from the morning
Chapter 4: A person who could be looked at
Chapter 6: The day and what it wanted
Chapter 8: People want everything to look perfect
Chapter 11: The smell of the ink
Chapter 13: He doesn’t look like his dad
Chapter 16: Autumn couldn’t ever come
Chapter 17: The cars carried on passing