This book is the story of a young girl obsessed by a childhood prophecy of disaster. The author builds up an atmosphere of tension and oppression, in the middle of an Indian summer.

The Book Is A Pioneering Study Of Its Kind, Chronologically Examining The Novels Of Anita Desai Mostly From A Female Point Of View. The Book Excels In Formally Analysing The Character And Situation Relationship In The Overall Context Of The Feminine Phyche Which It Thoroughly Examines. The Value Of The Book Is Immensely Enhanced By A Consideration Of Anita Desai S Fictional Technique. Dr. Gopal S Formal Method Is Not A Closed Universe But Cross Refers To The Social Structure Within Which The Situations Manipulate Characters And Their Destinies.

Anita Desai S Work Represents A Unique Blending Of The Indian And The Western. Her Novels Catch The Bewilderment Of The Individual Psyche Confronted With The Overbearing Socio-Cultural Environment And The Ever-Beckoning Modern Promise Of Self-Gratification And Self-Fulfilment. In The Face Of This Dual Onslaught, Her Protagonists, Male Or Female Maya, Sita, Monisha And Amla; Sarah, Nanda And Raka; Bim And Tara; Devan, Baumgartner Are Seen Poised Rentalizingly At Different Junctures Of The Philosophic Spectrum.Applying Sociological, Psychoanalytic, Structural And Other Approaches Of Formal Textual Analysis, The Essays In The Present Anthology Take A Fresh Look At Established Works, Revealing Aspects Of Study Hitherto Unexplored, Offer Critically Insightful Probes Into Individual Novels And Explore The Deployment Of Images, Symbols And Other Poetic Devices, Besides Diverse Narrative Strategies.An Indispensable Source-Book For Students, Researchers And Teachers Of Indian English And Commonwealth Literature In General And Fiction And Anita Desai In Particular.An Insightful Companion For Research In Sociology And Women-Studies.

Anita Desai And Her Novels Have Been An Enigma For Decades. Scholars, Critics, Researchers And Students Have Never Stopped Marvelling About Supremacy Of Idea Over Matter In The Works Of This Gifted Novelist. The Philosophical Mood, The Realization Of A Grand Design, The Presence Of Unsaid, Unarticulated Realities All These Have Forever Teased The Mind Of The Discerning Reader. In The Present Volume, Anita Desai Has Been Extensively And Intensely Probed. As The Reader Will See, The Thrust Has Been More On Psychological And Intellectual Facets Of Her Fiction, Rather Than Social, Cultural Or Physical Areas. This Is The Trend Of Criticism These Days And It Is Rightly So. The Fine Subtleties, The Small But Significant Turn Of Events, The Role Of Place In The Formation Of Mental Scene, The Vitality Of Characters, The Force Of Their Personalities, The Intricate Web Of Relationships All These Have Been Examined And Expressed In Words That Are At Once Easy To Understand As Well As Graceful To Aesthetic Sense.

Gone are the days when Nanda Kaul watched over her family and played the part of Vice-Chancellor’s wife. Leaving her children behind in the real world, the busier world, she has chosen to spend her last years alone in the mountains in Kasauli, in a secluded bungalow called Carignano. Until one summer her great-granddaughter Raka is dispatched to Kasauli – and everything changes. Nanda is at first dismayed at this break in her preciously acquired solitude. Fiercely taciturn, Raka is, like her, quite untamed. The girl prefers the company of apricot trees and animals to her great-grandmother’s, and spends her afternoons rambling over the mountainside. But the two are more alike than they know. Throughout the hot, long summer, Nanda’s old, hidden dependencies and wounds come to the surface, ending, inevitably, in tragedy. Marvellous yet restrained, Fire on the Mountain speaks of the past and its unshakable hold over the present.