Desai is widely recognized as one of the leading Indian novelists writing in the English language. R. K. Dhawan notes that Desai's novels "have drawn worldwide attention and she stands in the forefront in the world of fiction." B. Ramachandra Rao refers to Desai as "one of the most fascinating original writers in Indo-Anglican writing today." Both Seema Jena and R. S. Sharma state that Desai is "one of the most promising novelists writing in English today in India." Usha Bande concurs that Desai is "one of the most serious yet appealing novelists on the Indian-English firmament." Critics generally agree that, as Rao has said, Desai is "one of the most significant of the Indo-Anglican novelists." Dhawan has stated that Desai "has added a new dimension to the Indian English fiction." Dhawan explains that, whereas previous Anglo-Indian novelists (Indian novelists writing in English) have focused on...