None of these are new questions, nor are the answers she finds of earthshaking importance—they’re truths every immigrant will recognise, every diasporic traveller will own. But the journey itself is what makes this book so interesting—for the past does not reveal all, much remains elusive, what emerges so richly fills out the picture. The connections with families spread out in five places are fragile, sometimes non-existent, but there is also a willingness to share, and the truth that emerges is that while so much is lost when you leave home, much remains too. For Hajratwala, as for other diasporic Indians, this ‘much’ is that indefinable thing: India. In exploring this, the author also sheds a subtle light on the question of nationalism.