Clear Light Of Day: A BBC Between the Covers Big Jubilee Read Pick - Softcover

"A wonderful novel about silence and music, about the partition of a family as well as a nation" (New York Times Book Review)

"A rich Chekhovian novel by one of the most gifted of contemporary Indian writers" (New Yorker)

"Anita Desai has created an entire little civilization here from a fistful of memories, from a patchwork of sickroom dreams and childhood games and fairy tales. Clear Light of Day does what only the very best novels can do; it totally submerges us. It also takes us so deeply into another world that we almost fear we won't be able to climb out again" (Anne Tyler New York Times)

To the family living in the shabby, dusty house in Delhi, Tara's visit brings a sharp reminder of life outside tradition. For Bim, coping endlessly with their problems, there is a renewal of the old jealousies for, unlike her sister, she has failed to escape. Looking at both the cruelty and the beauty of family life and the harshness of India's modern history, Clear Light of Day brilliantly evokes the painful process of confronting and healing old wounds.