Contents: Preface. 1. The lie of the land : Introduction. 2. Twilight of the old masters: The novel-1. 3. Midnight’s children’s children : The novel-II. 4. A room of their own : women Novelists. 5. Chips from the fiction workshop: the short story. 6. Swan songs : poetry –I. 7. The cygnets : poetry--II. 8. In their own voice : women poets. 9. Cinderella still : drama. 10. Many-branched tree : prose. 11. At the Millennium dawn : conclusion. Select bibliography. Index.

"This volume surveys the astonishing flowering of Indian Writing in English during the last two decades. After a brief but trenchant analysis of the milieu, it examines the literary productions in the genres of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose. The range of this study is comprehensive, almost encyclopaedic, the style lively and jargon-free, and the critical enquiry perceptive and succinct, followed by an exhaustive bibliography of secondary sources.

A sequel to A History of Indian English Literature (1982) by M.K. Naik, this study is jointly authored by him and Shyamala A. Narayan. It should hopefully prove as indispensable to both scholars and common readers of Indian Writing in English as did its widely acclaimed predecessor." (jacket)