Summary

The novel is divided into three sections that cover the roughly three months during which Jai’s basti, or neighborhood, is terrorized by a series of child abductions. The novel uses both omniscient and limited first-person narration. At the beginning of each section is a brief story about the neighborhood told by an omniscient narrator. Each story is billed as a story “that will save your life.” Then each section, divided into chapters, is dominated by the narration of Jai himself. As each child in turn disappears, however, the story of the actual abduction is related by an omniscient narrator.

The novel begins with the story of Mental, a young, charismatic homeless man who becomes a sort of protector of a small group of boys in the basti who live more on the streets than in the cramped apartments where their families reside...