Publisher's Synopsis
"This is Allen's first novel, but you'd be forgiven for thinking she's been churning out spellbinding novels for some time." TIMEOUT "...tenderly written..." BIG ISSUE "I loved it...I felt under its spell from the beginning." MARGARET FORSTER The Mountain of Light, a London Indian restaurant, is Balu's great love. The delicious recipes he devises there are his sole connection to the land of his childhood. When Balu lets the flat upstairs to Sarah, he finds himself caught up in the bustle of younger, busier lives. Sarah, her boyfriend Jude, and Hari, a waiter, begin to gather after hours to chat and swap stories around his tables. But as Jude's jealousy of Hari grows more pronounced, it threatens to poison their circle. Meanwhile, Jozef, an elderly Polish man Sarah has befriended, has a heartbreaking tale of his own to tell: of his love for Ewa, a dancer with the Balets Polski in the 1930s.
