Arranged Marriage seems to have developed from the poem, “Arranged Marriage” in Divakaruni's collection of poems Black Candle: Poems about Women from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (1991), though the short story collection examines a much wider selection of themes.

In “Uncertain Objects of Desire,” an essay published in the March 2000 issue of Atlantic Monthly magazine, Divakaruni examines the Indian tradition of arranged marriage and comments on how it is being adapted to modern realities.

Divakaruni's first novel, The Mistress of Spices (1997), draws on the rich mystical and cultural traditions of India to tell the story of Tilo, a woman who is trained in the ancient art of healing through spices and ordained as an immortal through a rite of fire. She travels through time and takes the form of a wizened old woman to set up a shop in California, from...