Satisfactory, Not As Expected

Three friends. One year. The true version.

In 2008, as the world's banks are falling over, Somnath, Paulomi and Akshat leave business school for the safest job in India: management trainees at a giant state-owned oil company whose offer letters say permanent and pension.

Somnath, the poet who has never shown anyone a poem, is sent to a refinery in Mathura, where a man of fifty-five greets him with "We will call you sir." Paulomi, a colonel's daughter who believes competence should be enough, is told at her first drilling site that girls do not go to the exploration area. Akshat, who can talk to anyone, is sent to sell petrol in Tamil Nadu, and on his first assignment a man with a gold bracelet on each wrist hands him a bottle of whisky in a hotel lobby.

Before they scatter, they make a promise. In a year they will meet and tell each other everything that happened, not the version that goes in the report. Until then they have their Sunday-night calls, the Non Laughter Group and two words for emergencies: See me.

Then the year begins.

A funny, tender novel about first jobs, old friendships and the small compromises nobody warns you about, and about the friends who keep you laughing while you decide whether to tell the truth.

If you have ever walked out of an appraisal not quite sure why you were rated what you were rated, this book is for you.

From Anubhav Nanda, author of the much-loved Beat Plan, comes his first novel.