Discuss the relationship of the novel’s title to the story as a whole. In Chapter 4, the narrator connects the title to Bim (166), but what other connections exist? Does the title relate to other characters as well?

Stream-of-consciousness is a key literary device used by Desai in this novel. Pick a scene to explore in depth and consider how this technique works to build both character and theme.

At first, the two sisters seem to have chosen vastly different paths in life. Bim is the independent and modern woman and Tara the conventional wife and mother. Yet it becomes clear by the end of the novel that the sisters have more in common than first appeared. Have they grown together over the course of the novel, or have they recognized a commonality that was always there?