It is hard not to judge this book by its cover, a glittering play of half tones, silver and grey and black circles and semi circles. Once between the pages, however, the spheres fall into place, with the metaphors that divide the sections into the moon and its quarters. Ghose’s heroines are cosmic—Sashi the moon, a grandmother named after the crescent moon, Nayantara, the star in the eye and Poornima the maid, the full moon. The Illuminated are the women who light up the pages, the mothers and daughters of Bengal, who tangle with issues of loss, whether of a spouse or a lover. The novel is set in a period when one relied on central telephone lines and helpful women who run hostels. When the sun of Sashi’s life, her husband Robi, sets, she is in New Jersey with her son Surjo—another son-sun play.