The Basement

The entirety of the novel transpires in the basement office of the Indian Consulate. Here, seven people are waiting for their visa appointment so they can legally visit India. Two more are employees of the consulate. Each person's reasons for traveling are very different and are unknown to the others, until an earthquake reduces the building to rubble and they are trapped in the dark and dank basement. Before the earthquake, the building is portrayed as a nauseating clinical setting, which most every reader can relate to as a place where one waits for long extended periods of time for nothing. After the earthquake, the basement becomes positively horrifying, with falling ceilings and rising water, and a dead body floating in the hallway. Faced with their inevitable deaths, the people in the basement are compelled to tell each other the most moving stories of their lives.

India