"Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father) and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose domineering mother, Helen, is a famous feminist. Though both Yasmin's parents and Joe's mother approve of the marriage, the cultural gulf between them is vast as, it turns out, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe. The novel opens as Yasmin, her parents and her brother pile into...

1914. Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley on the Mexican border, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak's offer of work and partnership in a small cantaloupe farm. Fleeing violence in Oregon, Ram desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in Punjab, but is duty bound to make his fortune first. Along with Ram and Karak are Jivan and his wife, Kishen; and Amarjeet, a U.S. soldier, though the Valley is full of settlers hailing from...

When Zimdalamashkermishkada starts a new school, he decides to shrink his name to the shorter, simpler Zim, but when his new friend Elly sees him for who he truly is, Zimdalamashkermishkada finds the confidence to step proudly into his long name.

A stolen Hindu diamond, the Moonstone, works its curse after being stolen from it's shrine. Just before Rachel's birthday, a man named Franklin Blake announces to Rachel that the Moonstone has been bequeathed to her by Herncastle. Blake gives her the jewel on her birthday and offers to mount the jewel for her to wear. The jewel goes missing and Rachel believes that Blake stole it. Determined to prove his innocence, Blake leaves in order to pursue...

"Sona Sharma's house is full of people who joke often and argue sometimes. Relatives come unannounced, the phone rings frequently and friends drop in all the time. Then one day Amma tells Sona she is going to have a baby. Is that good? Sona isn't sure -- she has always enjoyed being an only child -- and straight away she has a word with her best friend, Elephant. When Sona learns that there will be a baby naming ceremony, she is determined to find...

Hassan is a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, his family settles in a quaint village in the south of France. They plan to open an Indian restaurant, that is, until Madame Mallory, the owner of a classical French restaurant, gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant so near her own escalate to all out war; until Hassan's cooking talent and love for Mme. Mallory's...