Upamanyu Chatterjee è un autore indiano noto per le sue opere ambientate nel Servizio Amministrativo Indiano. La sua scrittura esplora spesso gli aspetti ironici e satirici della burocrazia e della vita quotidiana in India. Lo stile di Chatterjee è caratterizzato dalla sua acuta intuizione della psicologia umana e dalla sua capacità di cogliere le sfumature delle interazioni sociali.
Agastya Sen, known to friends by the English name August, is a child of the Indian elite. August himself has just landed a prize government job, which takes him to Madna - a town with the highest temperatures in India - deep in the sticks. There he finds himself surrounded by incompetents and cranks, time wasters, bureaucrats, and crazies.
Jamun is a young man, adrift. His father, Shymanand, is old and his mother, Ursula, on her deathbed. As the novel opens, the family are gathering together for the inevitable parting. Tracking backwards and forwards in time and space, the book unfolds a picture of Jamun and his family.