The Exiles

Mrs Wain has spent years in India without ever warming to the smell of marigolds. So when she hears that she and Mr Wain are returning to England, she is delighted. She pictures a quiet house in the countryside, a life without the dust and mess she has put up with, and not a single marigold in sight. At last, she thinks, she is going home.

But the closer departure comes, the less certain she feels. As she sorts and packs the belongings of their life in India, small things catch her off guard. Her beautiful china, even something as ordinary as taking a bath, begins to feel like a loss, and she starts to see how much she is giving up in exchange for an England she has never really lived in.

Nergis Dalal writes with a light, wry touch about the contradictions in how people think and feel, and this story is a good example. It is funny in places and moving in others, a short and quietly compelling look at what home means when you are about to leave it.