If there is one thing that manifests itself in every book written by Mistry, it is his love for Bombay. The city is always the canvas, the background on which Mistry paints his richly detailed portraits of the people of Bombay and their stories.

Almost as if part of a trilogy of sorts, following the success of Such a Long Journey (set in 1971) and A Fine Balance (set in late 70's), Mistry's newest work of fiction, Family Matters, revisits Bombay in the 1990's to tell a story about a family at odds.

A Bombayvallah himself, Mistry effortlessly describes a city in chaos through the experiences of a small but discordant, an educated but impoverished, Parsi family residing in Bombay.

The story revolves around Nariman Vakeel, an aging retired professor who is battling not only his demons from the past and his present day Parkison's disease but also his two grown stepchildren, both of whom are unmarried and unemployed: Coomy, a bitter and bossy middle-aged woman, and Jal, her easily intimidated, unambitious brother. The other significant characters are Nariman's own daughter Roxana and her family -- husband Yezad Chenoy and sons Murad and Jehangir.

When Nariman falls and breaks his ankle (by first "breaking the rules" set by Coomy and venturing out for a walk), Coomy is distraught with the additional caregiving duties imposed upon her. Changing bedpans is something she can handle for only a week and before long she has summoned an ambulance and deposited Nariman to his loving "flesh and blood" daughter Roxana. Of course, she dismisses the thought that the arrangement might cause more just a slight inconvenience to Roxana who occupies a small 2 bedroom apartment while Coomy and Jal themselves reside at Nariman's sprawling, albeit dilapidated, seven room apartment.

Family Matters is a skillfully woven tapestry of mostly lamentable stories of the residents of these two buildings (which are ironically called "Chateau Felicity" and "Pleasant Villa") and also parallels the story of Bombay itself and its own crumbling state.

Readers are introduced to the Shiv-Sena which although a political party is more like the big-boys' bullying network with their gangster like ways of 'incinerating all postcards and letters that say Bombay instead of Mumbai' and their efforts to ban 'Valentines Day' festivities so as to preserve the morals of young, unsuspecting, innocent Indians.

Weeks roll into months as Nariman grapples with his illness and yet discovers and nurtures a special bond with his grandchildren. Yezad, Nariman's son-in-law, coping only barely with the now-cramped living conditions and the added financial strain launches a plan to raise money to fill the almost-empty envelopes Roxana keeps in a drawer from which to pay the family expenses. Nariman, on the other hand, through his violent dreams reveals details of his past that the family never before really talked about: the love of his life, "that goan woman", the catholic Lucy Braganza, whom his Parsi parents never did allow him to marry.

There are, thankfully, some wonderfully light moments and some comical encounters throughout, which inject much needed humour, wit and delight in, what would otherwise have been, a very morbid novel. The young grandchildren, particularly some comebacks by Jehangir, the polished wit and sarcasm of Yezda and finally the wonderfully unique flavour of English as it can only be spoken by bombayites leaves the reader with a smile and much mirth.

For a person who is already familiar with Mistry's previous works, this book may come as a slight disappointment when compared to "A Fine Balance" which is a saga that spans over three generations in the life of a nation and it's people. However, in Family Matters you will meet three generations of one family, where every character is made larger than life by Mistry's painstaking detail in capturing their every mood and emotion.

This is a book about ordinary people and Mistry makes it extraordinary by the richness of detail and description that he gives to each character. It makes you want to go home and hug your parents, your siblings, your significant other or whoever it is that you consider family.

If there is one message that is conveyed by "Family Matters" it is just that! Family DOES matter.