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There are three storytellers in this readable and heartbreaking novel: Magda, a retired chemist who struggles to maintain independence; her carer Susheela, a university student for whom Magda is one of several demanding clients, but who still manages to see them all as human beings; and in an earlier era, the experiences of Magda's mother Evelyn Roberts, who went out to India to become Mrs Benedict Worsal Compton and came back after partition. In flashbacks to India, the memories of Evelyn and Magda conjure up shattered relationships. When Magda is born, Benedict engages Mrs Greenson to look after the baby against Evelyn's wishes, and she hardly sees her daughter. Meanwhile she is longing for the woman friend she left back at home, Helen. When the Bengali woman Aashi becomes pregnant, Evelyn is sympathetic, but when the inquisitive Magda reports that Aashi's husband has called her a whore, Evelyn begins to question who the child's father is. In Kharagpur there is unrest and Evelyn finds her husband's small cruelties beginning to hurt. In the present, Susheela discovers she is pregnant but her boyfriend Ewan is initially reluctant to be involved, and she gradually realises he has mental health issues which they face together. Meanwhile she tries to help Magda with the threat of residential care. A gripping read. 366pp.