This was a beautiful story. The interactions and relationships among the four main characters were engrossing and inspiring. If you enjoy historical fiction, this story is for you. I could not put this book down. However, before reading this book, note that the story contains wonderful, warm and loving moments but also has very violent and highly upsetting parts which are very descriptive of what happens to those born and locked into abject poverty in India. I found these parts to be very hard to read and the images and outcomes unfortunately still linger in my mind. So this book is not for the "faint of heart".