In Friend of My Youth a novelist named Amit Chaudhuri visits his childhood home of Bombay. The city reeling from the impact of the 2008 terrorist attacks weighs heavily on his mind as does the unexpected absence of his childhood friend Ramu a drifting opaque figure who is Amits last remaining connection to the city he once called home. Amit Chaudhuris new novel is about geographical historical and personal change. It asks a question we all grapple with in our lives: what does it mean to exist in both the past and the present? It is a striking reminder that as the Guardian has said Chaudhuri has been pushing away at form trying to make something new of the novel.