Career
A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and afterwards published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India declared its independence, Markandaya moved to Britain, though she still labeled herself an Indian expatriate long afterwards. Known for writing about culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya"s first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955.
Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Manitoba (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).
Markandaya died May 16, 2004. Almeida, Rochelle. Originality and Imitation: Indianness in the Novels of Kamala Markandaya.
Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000. Jha, Rekha. The Novels of Kamala Markandaya and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: A Study in East-West Encounter.
New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1990.
Joseph, Margaret P. Kamala Markandaya, Indian Writers Series, North. Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1980. Krishna Rao, A. V. The Indo-Anglian Novel and Changing Tradition: A Study of the Novels of Mulk Raj Anad, Kamala Markandaya, Ramakrishna Narayan, Raja Rao, 1930-1964. Mysore: 1972. Parameswaran, Uma.
Kamala Markandaya.
Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000. Shrivastava, Manish. "Conflicts of Sensibility in Kamala Markandaya"s A Silence of Desire". Synthesis: Indian Journal of English Literature and Language. volume.1, no.1.
Singh, Indu.
"The Feminist Approach in Kamala Markandaya"s Novels with Special Reference to Nectar in a Sieve", Synthesis: Indian Journal of English Literature and Language, volume.1, no.1.