In The Mistress of Spices (1997), a novel of magic and everyday life by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the heroine, Tilo, forgoes a life of special powers to live and love as an ordinary woman.

What's Happening to India? Punjab, Ethnic Conflict, Mrs. Gandhi's Death, and the Test for Federalism, by Robin Jeffrey (1986), is a survey of events leading to the Golden Temple incident and Indira Gandhi's assassination, with a focus on the roles of media and modernization.

Days and Nights in Calcutta (1977), by Mukherjee and Clark Blaise, is a journal of the couple's 1973 visit to India.

In The Holder of the World (1997), a novel by Mukherjee, a diamond called Tear Drop connects a contemporary woman, Beigh Masters, to a 19th-century Puritan woman, Hannah Easton.

In Leave It To Me (1997), a novel by Mukherjee, the heroine, Debbie DiMartino, searches to find her...