This turned out to be a really funny, and also quite sad look at money. You could probably sum it up with the phrase ;the grass isn't always greener', but Diksha Basu puts it much more eloquently here!

The Jhas have lived a modest, hard-working life - they're not hugely poor, yet not hugely wealthy - until Mr Jha sells his website for $20 million and suddenly they can afford to leave their cramped, crowded family home, where all the neighbours are in their business and move to an upscale neighbourhood of Delhi. But while their previous home could grate on them at times, this new home is a whole world away, with no need to venture out to meet the neighbours, or go for a walk, of make friends. They have money to live comfortably, but what next?

Although this book is set in India, and has many traits unique to that country, the main point of the story could apply anywhere - sudden wealth and a feeling of security turns out to not quite be what the recipient thingks it is.

The book finishes with these life lessons and the threads of the story resolved in a hopeful way, so it's not all doom and gloom, but lots of things in it will resonate and it really was a good read.

A humorous, sentimental, and sharp book about a family who have enough money to move from the apartment building they've always lived in to a large gated house in an exclusive neighborhood. Pretty much a universal story, but set very particularly in modern Delhi. I thought this was exactly like watching a really good Bollywood movie - loads of detail, colour, laughs and even romance. Mr Jha, who sets the move into action, is poked fun at for his aspirations, but the author is generous to everyone even while pointing out their faults. One of the interwoven stories involves the Jha's son who is going to school in Ithaca (no, not Cornell) and Basu is faultless in her depiction of his relationship with his parents. Recommend!

Wonderfully enchanting satire. I absolutely loved the style of this book. So many stories intertwined and yet easy to follow along with all of the colorful characters included. Honestly this book would make for a great tv show and I hope someone options it.

Mr Jha certainly digs himself into some wacky situations!

The Windfall is a funny and often sweet novel set in Delhi and America about money, social pressure, and what really makes someone happy. Anil Jha has made his fortune selling his website to an American start-up and he and his wife Bindu are moving to a more expensive area of Delhi. From their small flat where the neighbours are at close quarters to their new bungalow with its own gate, it is a big jump, especially when their new neighbours are so engrained in the world of money and privilege. Mr Jha finds himself unable to do anything but compete with these neighbours in increasingly ridiculous ways, and all the while he and his wife worry about their son Rupak, who is at college in America and not doing as well as they believe.

Basu’s novel is a classic comedy of manners, with the excesses of the rich mocked whilst gently poking fun at those who attempt to imitate it. Mr Jha’s obsession with appearing to fit in with and one-up the rich people he can now compete with is both ridiculous and endearing, with the narrative never quite laughing at him too much. Mrs Jha is the novel’s heart and possibly its best character, a woman who is uncertain about their move and about the American world her beloved son now lives in, but who ultimately wants the best for her husband and son, as well as supporting her widowed friend Reema as she tries to give her life a fresh start. It is the kind of comedy that revolves around the characters and their idiosyncrasies as it depicts the ridiculousness of wealth and the way that cultures blend and change in the modern world.

This is a comic novel not to be missed, a book with endearing and amusingly relatable characters that pokes light fun at money and rivalry whilst showing what it might be that actually makes people happy. It is a classic comedy of manners with a modern, globalised edge.