Contemporaries of Desai include Manil Suri, and Desai's mother, Anita Desai. In addition, any of the following stories also illuminates the culture of India and the problems involved in integrating other cultures into the Indian cultural landscape.

The Death of Vishnu (2001), a first novel by Manil Suri, tells the story of Vishnu, a resident odd-job man who lies dying on the staircase he inhabits while his neighbors the Pathaks and the Asranis argue over who will pay for an ambulance. As the action spirals up through the floors of the apartment building, the reader garners the history of the building residents' lives, from Mr. Jalal's obsessive search for higher meaning to Vinod Taneja's longing for the wife he has lost, to the comic elopement of Kavita Asrani, a woman who fancies herself the heroine of a Hindi movie.

The Glass Palace (2001) is a masterly...