Still Lives

by Reshma Ruia

English 312 pages 1 edition

Young, handsome, and contemptuous of his father’s traditional ways, PK Malik leaves Bombay to start a new life in America. Stopping in Manchester to visit an old friend, he thinks he sees a business opportunity and decides to stay on. Now fifty-five, PK has fallen out of love with life. His business is struggling, and his wife Geeta is lonely, pining for the India she’s left behind. One day, PK crosses the path of Esther, the wife of his business competitor, and they launch into an affair conducted in shabby hotel rooms, with the fear of discovery forever hanging in the air. Still Lives is a tightly woven, haunting work that pulls apart the threads of a family and plays with notions of love, betrayal and belonging.