These twelve delightful linked stories begin in a small village on India’s Malabar coast. The Variyars are a traditional matriarchal family, their children are numerous and spoilt, and life revolves around the temple. The family and its fortunes are described through the perceptions of its various members, particularly the younger ones. Blues from the Malabar Coast describes the life of the family, dominated from dawn till dusk by the old grandmother in the kitchen . . . In "Leela's Dream," a young widow gives birth to a daughter whom—by invoking an old custom—she promises to the son of a beloved brother who will soon marry; the young couple so engaged are Ven and Seema. In “Greener Pastures” they arrive in Quebec City, whose winters Ven adores and where Seema recalls the life of her family. In “Going Back” Seema returns for the cremation of her father, an honest, unassuming tax inspector with whom she had wandered the length and breadth of India.