'Bombay Time' by Thrity Umrigar is compulsive reading. It follows the lives of the Parsee residents of Wadia Baug, a block of flats in modern day Mumbai.

Knowing little about the Parsee culture, I found the cultural customs, the language and the minutiae of the lives deeply absorbing. Originally Persians from Iran, Parsees fled persecution and settled in Northern India, mainly near Bombay where they held many of the key civil service positions during the days of the British Rule. Generally fair-skinned and cultured this gives them a Western orientation often at odds with the other more poverty-stricken, illiterate Mumbai residents. The Parsees in India feel under siege. The younger ones like Rusi & Coomi Bilimoria's daughter 'Binny' choosing to emigrate to Europe or the USA.

The book recounts the memories of the ageing Wadia Baug residents - skilfully threading separate life strands together into a mass not unlike a sadly misshapen by comfortable old jumper.

Rusi Bilimoria is an embittered businessman whose dreams of untold wealth have failed to materialise. Bitterness turns to cold hatred towards his wife, Coomi, an intelligent, sharp-witted woman whose own ambitions were thwarted by an acrimonious relationship with her mother-in-law. Isolated and unloved she uses her razor-sharp tongue to lash at her husband's failings and infuriates him by being a slow dresser, making them late for all functions. Her tardiness and his mounting frustration at their failed marriage are only assuaged by their daughter Binny, the "glue" of their marriage. When she marries a Westerner and emigrates the duelling couple are left to face their fading years with only each other. Hard to believe that this acutely observed tense and edgy couple were ever in love. And yet, love is an important thread in this book.

Dosamai, the neighbourhood gossip had plans to be India's first Parsee female doctor but has ended up spying from behind curtains and living on the nuggets of information about other people's lives. Promised in an early marriage by an otherwise devoted father, her plans to study further end abruptly after marriage. Her snooping and prying ways mean that even her son and hated daughter-in-law have chosen to move out of Wadia Baug.

Soli Contractor is one of two bachelor residents of the community. He falls in love with a Jewish musician's daughter, Mariam Rubin. After the post-war creation of the state of Israel, her family decide to emigrate to support this new Jewish homeland, leaving Soli lovelorn and alone. Decades later Soli receives a letter from his long lost love, now a widow. Is it too late or can their romance be rekindled? Does love die or does it last forever?

Each family has its own tragedies, Tehmi Engineer perhaps the worst of all. Married young to the charismatic heartthrob Cyrus Engineer, his untimely demise leaves her unable to continue. Afflicted by a bewildering physical ailment she is forced into seclusion in Wadia Baug. She doesn't see the years passing until she is left wondering why she only attends funerals and not weddings.

The wedding of the son of successful local boy, Jimmy Kanga, jolts Tehmi and the others into the present. Mehernosh Kanga's wedding is a lavish affair throwing together all the residents into a nostalgic recollection. Armed with a photo album entitled ' Memories of Wadia Baug' they recall the day when Jimmy asked his girlfriend Zarin to marry him. And she in turn replied that if he could catch the local pig then she would! From such bizarre stories to darker tales, Thrity Umrigar's beautifully observed characters made me believe these were real people. Each personality is exceptionally well layered, not all bad, not all good.

Adi Patel, for example, fulfils his lustful desires by having sex with a local farmer's daughter barely in her teens. Full of guilt and remorse, he returns the next day to give her money, but only succeeds in branding her as a prostitute in her village.

Bomi & Sheroo Mistry, the misfits whose story is not told, appear to have achieved the best marriage despite early misgivings. But this is not a tale frozen in time. Thrity Umrigar swiftly brings us back to the present with the wedding banquet.

After hours of endless waiting for left over scraps of food, one Mumbai's homeless at the gates hurls a stone into the party wounding Sheroo Mistry. A quick succession of events brings all the characters minds to the present. Their existence seeming even more fragile in the teeming, bustling, hustling and menacing city that is modern day Mumbai.

Ms Umrigar is truly a masterful storyteller and this is a beautifully written book.

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