Fasting, Feasting

Divided between two continents, Anita Desai's novel contrasts the constrained existence of Uma, an unmarried daughter bound to her overbearing parents' household in provincial India, with the emotional isolation of her privileged brother Arun during a summer stay with an American suburban family in Massachusetts. Through the everyday rituals of meals, duty, and quiet domestic restrictions, the story examines gender expectations and the subtle forms of hunger that persist across very different worlds.