It was impossible to put this down. The narratives of Jivan, Lovely, and PT Sir flow together to tell an overwhelmingly powerful story about the true cost of striving to have more. Whether it’s wanting to move out of the slums and into the middle class, wanting to be an actress and accepted as a woman, or wanting to be powerful and respected, the three main characters here make choices to achieve their goals that have deadly consequences.

Jivan is sweet and naive. She has an admirable goal of raising her family out of poverty and even charitably spends some of her time teaching English to Lovely, a transgender woman who dreams of becoming an actress. Lovely is strong and unbending, always working towards her dreams and ignoring the uninvited insults she receives on a daily basis, meeting them with kind politeness. PT Sir is a physical education teacher who is overly sensitive, always seeing the unintended slight and taking it personally. He stumbles upon a political rally and slowly, one step at a time finds himself following an unexpected path.

Where Jivan and Lovely captured my heart, PT Sir made me so frustrated. He was selfish and his self-aggrandizing behaviour was infuriating; it was not surprising to see someone so unworthy be given more and more power but it was certainly exasperating.