Something like a law of diminishing returns operates on a love story repeated ad nauseam.
Again, as in Misra’s first novel, the heroine escapes from Kerala to England with a young man, Rahul, who is moved to offer her a safe exit. That her life in England seems to give her little beyond the joys of bargain hunts at Tesco’s is another matter and no doubt something Misra will tell us in her next book.
Mercifully, Maya dies in a car accident and Rahul is left to deal with the aftermath. Afterwards ends with his return to Kerala with her ashes which he immerses in a river near her childhood home. After an invigorating bath with Lifebuoy soap in her mum’s spartan bathroom, our Lochinvar returns to England but not before he thoughtfully sends Maya’s mum a big bottle of Horlicks. Pity that Misra has not moved on as purposefully as Rahul.