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The days are getting shorter and the nights are growing longer –fall is in the air. It’s the perfect time to snuggle up with a good read. When choosing your next book, consider one of the many celebrated female South Asian authors. Through their work you can experience and explore love, relationships and finding one’s identity from a unique but familiar perspective. CitySaheli found some authors you may not have heard of but may want to consider exploring.
Chitra Banarjee Divakaruni: This Indian born author moved to the United States at the age of 19. Much of her work is autobiographical in that it takes place in the California bay area, where she spent much of her life, and reflects upon the immigrant experience. Arranged Marriage and The Mistress of Spices are two of her most famous novels. Arranged Marriage portrays the lives of immigrant women that move to the United States that struggle to carve out their identity in their new country. The Mistress of Spices is a beautifully piece that follows the life of a grocery store owner that falls in love with a non-Indian. Also a great read by Chitra Banarjee Divakaruni is Sister of My Heart , which is the story of two women and how they are changed by marriage, as one sister comes to California and the other stays in India. If you believe in sisterhood and friendship Sister of My Heart is a definite read.
Amulya Malladi: Daughter of a Major in the Indian army, this Indian born author started writing at the age of 11 and by 16 her writings about Indian women were published in The Deccan Chronical. After living in the United States for many years, she moved to Denmark, where she now lives with her husband and son. She initially became known for her first book A Breath of Fresh Air , a book about love and tragedy that was inspired by an mthyl isocyanate gas leak Malladi experienced while living in Bhopal, India, which took the lives of many. She is also well known for The Mango Season , a book about an Indian woman that moves to the United States and falls in love with an American man and now has to return home to tell her family. Malladi inspiration for this novel was the time she spent in Hyderabad, India.
Indu Sundaresan: This author, born in India and now living in the United States, is known for her romantic and passionate story of young woman and the American soldier she meets in India, in her powerful novel The Splendor of Silence . This passionate fiction also depicts the harsh reality of British prior to independenc
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