But, as you get inside the lives of Ben Tennyson, nondescript British schoolteacher and gourmand with three chapters of an unfinished cookbook behind him, his wife, Priya, thirtyish Indian Londoner, enigmatic and wild by nature, and their son, nicknamed Whacka, there is something oddly endearing about this dysfunctional family.

In the course of a day, which happens to be Whacka’s third birthday, we get to know of the events and the people who have brought their eight-year marriage to this state of turmoil. Vakil’s economy with language gives a sharpness to his characters and a wry edge to their troubled lives that succeeds in making this a thoroughly engaging, even enjoyable read, rather than a morbid one. As long as he stays off the sex.