ALL OUR EVENINGS

When an old flame comes back into his orbit, an Indian man remembers the decades-past summer that changed their lives.

Arjun works for the municipal water office, reading meters and answering customer calls. Nearly 40, he’s still single and lives with his parents in Hyderabad. There’s only been one woman he ever wanted to marry—Ruhee, whom he’s loved since childhood. But Ruhee and her family moved away when Arjun was a teen, after a catastrophic summer. Now, though, Ruhee is back in town, working as a doctor and expressing a wish to reconnect with Arjun. Ruhee’s sudden reappearance triggers memories of the fateful summer when Arjun met the mysterious Ganesh while playing cricket. Ganesh tells Arjun he’s an Indigenous orphan from the Gond tribe adopted by a family who raises him for his labor, not allowing him to attend school. To Arjun’s surprise, Ganesh and Ruhee hit it off—a little too well, as they enter into the kind of intimate relationship that Arjun had envisioned for Ruhee and himself. To top it off, that summer marks the uncovering of an affair between two teachers at Arjun’s school, one of whom happens to be Arjun’s father, which affects the family’s reputation in town. Sliding seamlessly between Arjun’s present and that fateful summer, the narrative uncovers secret after secret: Ganesh is not who he seems to be. But, for that matter, neither is Arjun. Rao’s novel has all the makings of a twisty, slow-burn thriller whose careful structure is a marvel. Though some twists work better than others, Rao’s deft plot has much to say about the tragic consequences of desire, whether for social class, power, or love.

Donna Tartt fans looking for dark erudition should pick up Rao’s novel.