Indian writer Anita Desai's slim novel Fire on the Mountain tells the story of Nanda Kaul, an elderly misanthrope who lives a solitary existence in the Himalayan Mountains before her great-granddaughter, Raka, comes to live with her. The novel shows how memory, fantasy, and subjective experience affect reality through its third person omniscient point of view. Desai engages with themes of tradition, memory, women's plight under India's patriarchy, and alienation in modern civilization.
One of the most accomplished fiction writers of English today, Anita Desai has established herself through the consistency of her formidable body of work. From acclaimed children's fiction--The Villag...
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Anita Desai