New Delhi, April 19 -- In Every Room Has a View (2025), Sujit Saraf's novel about prosperous Indian-Americans living in Silicon Valley, a dark comedy unfolds as the central characters set out on a search for a Hindu priest in San Francisco. Eventually the jeans-clad pandit they zero in on takes far too many liberties with Vedic rituals, much to their chagrin. A similar anxiety pervades the opening pages of The Fire Sacrifice by Susham Bedi, originally published in 1989 as Hawan and recently translated into English by Jerry Pinto.

In the world of Hindi literature, Bedi (1945-2020) is known as one of the pioneering chroniclers of the NRI experience, depicting the inherent in-betweenness of her immigrant characters' lives. In addition to he...