Cross-Cultural Conflict and Identity in the Select Novels of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

This bookexplores the five novels of Divakaruni, Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Vine of Desire, Queen of Dreams and Oleander Girl . Generally her characters of the novels are set in Kolkata, and in the Bay Area of California.She is a perfect interpreter of a cultural multiplicity of India. Her novels reflect Indian, especially Bengali cultural traditions of India in an intimate family garb closely related to social, cultural and psychological norms pertainingto food, clothes and tradition. These novels show the immigrants who face cultural predicaments in the foreign land. Though the characters of the novels stick to their own cultural beliefs and customs, but they imbibe the cultural ways of the host country too. These novels depict the issues of Divakaruni’s own cultural location in West Bengal in India. She has faithfully projected Indian culture and tradition in realistic terms in these novels. Foregrounding the issues of multiculturalism, post colonialism, and globalization with a focus on the American culture, and people this book analyses the negotiations which take place at the site of cross-cultural encounters in the select novels of Divakaruni.