"The Exile, however disillusioned by his people, is never able to escape his longing for them. How terribly strange it all is." Downfall by Degrees takes the reader on a journey that explores the nature of alienation and exile. The drawing rooms of Lahore's high society, the ghettos of Britain, an estate in the Pakistanin countryside, the bedroom of a beautiful woman - these are the setings for these stories of love and identity, longing and becoming, exile and return - stories that probe with masterful precision and exquisite balance the condition of modern man at odds against himself.