Unfolding

Ralph, in his thirties, desires a steady relationship. But his partner, Ojas, has other plans—he wants to keep it open. Meanwhile, Ralph’s house-help Zubina faces a crisis of her own. After walking in on Ralph and Ojas sharing a moment of tenderness, she starts questioning her own marriage—one that has produced two children, but little else; certainly not the kind of love she had borne witness to at Ralph’s. As Ralph tries to retain a sense of equanimity under the shadow of Ojas’s decision, and as Zubina struggles to understand the foundations of her own married life, both, from vastly different circumstances, find themselves beset similarly by deep restlessness and confusion. Both are in relationships burdened by words that have never been said. Both are waiting for a future to reveal itself—to unfold as it must. An exceptional debut novel that follows an affluent couple in Kolkata and a working-class Muslim mother in the city’s slums, Unfolding ventures where few stories go. It confronts the wayward ways of the heart; it articulates the true price of love; and it tells us what it means to find the road back home.