Takes place in the basement office of a visa permit for India. While a group of people are there awaiting there requests for a visa, an earthquake occurs. They find themselves trapped with limited food and water. Each one tells about a meaningful incident their lives while they await their outcome.

Right after "Hyperion", another coral novel. If the former sported very different narrative style for every character, here the tone is more uniform - the one we learned to love in Divakaruni.

Not the best of her books to date, but somehow the one with the most interesting finale. ( )

Nine strangers are trapped in a visa office after an earthquake rocks the city. All come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. To pass the time, one of them suggests that they tell a story of a time that was important to them, "one amazing thing". The stories were wonderful and explained how different their lives are. I thought this book was beautifully written. I would have given it five stars, but I felt it got a bit confusing with so many characters. I would recommend this book to others. ( )

A beautiful book about human resilience through memories and stories in the face of death. The individual stories are quite moving, and the frame of trapped because of an earth quake adds intensity to these stories, showing courage through vulnerability. ( )

I read this for the Nashville Talking Library last year sometime and just now remembered the name of it.

A group of strangers are congregated at an Indian Embassy in a large city (Los Angeles, I think). Most are there to get visas for travel to India. There's an earthquake that traps them and they are waiting for rescue. There are many threads of story here--the way each copes with this crisis and then, to try to keep themselves calm, they each tell a story about themselves. ( )