What happens when we try to leave the life we know for something better? In five destinies, this novel unfolds a grand panorama of modern Indian society. Neel Mukherjee tells the story in "The Lives" of people who set out, leaving their homes in search of a better life for themselves and their families. There is the cook in Mumbai who works in six households; there is the man who travels from place to place with his dancing bear; there is the girl who flees to the city from the terrorists threatening her village – they all experience what it means to no longer be in their own familiar surroundings. Their fates speak of the frosts of freedom, of being foreign and alone, of poverty and work. But also of hope and happiness. An atmospherically rich novel from contemporary India, a modern society.