Shortlisted for a 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. Is going back the only way to start again? After more than thirty years in London, recently-widowed Thomas Imbalil returns to India. He spends his first months in uncluttered isolation in his house overlooking the Arabian Sea, in a small fishing village in Kerala. But when he agrees to look after his friend`s business, Chacko`s Optical Store, he meets & befriends Rani, the young assistant. Before long he discovers that Rani is using the store to run an intriguing side-business. He agrees to turn a blind eye to her operations until his friend returns, but this discovery makes him restless, & reminds him of the loneliness he is feeling & which lies ahead of him. Rani also reveals herself as a much more complex individual than he had first imagined, & while he had envisaged a quiet re-acquaintance with his homel&, Thomas finds himself becoming more & more entangled with the lives of those around him.