Contents: Preface. 1. The Parsis and Parsi English Writing. 2. Growing is knowing: a critical study of Firdaus Kanga's trying to grow. 3. A fine balance between hope and Despair through a long journey: Rohinton Mistry's fiction. 4. Between the east and the west: a critical study of Farrukh Dhondy's Bombay Duck. 5. Within the subcontinent and beyond: a critical study of Bapsi Sidhwa's The Crow Eaters, The Pakistani Bride, Ice-Candy Man and An American Brat. Bibliography. Index.

"Parsi English Novel presents a critical study of four major Parsi novelists writing in English. The book includes the novels of Firdaus Kanga, Rohinton Mistry, Farrukh Dhondy and Bapsi Sidhwa from the view point of thematic concerns, characterization, plot structure, narrative technique and language. These major Parsi novelists delineate in their respective attempts to give the readers an idea of what make them portray their community in their fictional discourse. Little is known about the miniscule community of the Parsis in spite of their considerable and significant contribution to various facets of national life in the Indian subcontinent. The opening section of the present book provides authentic and scholarly insights into Zoroastrian faith in particular and Parsi English writing in general. All the concerns of the community declining population, brain drain, late marriages, inter faith marriages, funeral rites, attitude to the girl child, urbanization, alienation, modernist vs. traditionalist attitude to religion and the existence or non existence of ethnic anxieties are aptly delineated in the novels of Firdaus Kanga, Rohinton Mistry, Farrukh Dhondy and Bapsi Sidhwa. Jaydipsinh Dodiya has made every possible effort to explore the distinctive character of the Parsi English novel of the current era. The present book will of immense help to students, teachers and scholars who wish to study Parsi English novelists." (jacket)