Like most Jhumpa Lahiri stories, I found myself on the edge of tears for most of this novel. The characters are so well drawn, three-dimensional, and I feel like I understand them at an emotional level. I barely noticed the time jumping, I was eager to always learn more about what shaped these characters. In writing about these two brothers who go in different directions - one to America after college and one to stay in Calcutta in the 1970s - I learned a bit about India's history. As always with Lahiri, it's a story about cultural divide, but here it's also about family and what generations say and do not say to the next... something I believe to be pretty universal.