Shakespeare’s heroines: A room of their own
Reviewed by Rumina Sethi
Women in Shakespeare: A Post-Feminist Review.
Ed Bhim S. Dahiya Viva.
Pages 282. Rs 895
Feminist perspectives have been around for a few decades in English studies, attempting to expose the site as well as the mode of enunciation of dominant ideologies such as patriarchy, colonialism and nationalism that masquerade as the social and political consciousness of the state.

Riveting tale about coming of age in Iran
Reviewed by Aradhika Sharma
A Teaspoon Of Earth And Sea
by Dina Nayeri
Allen and Dunwin.
Pages 423. Rs 399
The author has written about Iran in the 1980s and tracks the coming of age of Saba Hafezi, who belongs to an affluent family in Cheshmeh, a small rice-growing Iranian village. The duality of Saba and her friends' lives is evident in their living in an Islamic state with increasingly fundamentalist values that limit women in all sorts of ways and the exposure Saba has had to the American lifestyle via glossy fashion magazines and music. Saba and her sister, Mahtab, are enchanted by America and all that it stands for.

Tricky question of rights
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Separated and Divorced Women In India.
Economic Rights and Entitlements
by Kirti Singh. Sage.
Pages 255. $47.50
Women in India are facing a peculiar situation. With an increasing number of girls becoming educated, women as a workforce are contributing to the economy of the country. A majority of them continue to face the brunt of household chores at home.

Multi-layered, sensitive, narrative
Reviewed by Vibha Sharma
Oleander Girl
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Penguin Books. 
Pages 288. Rs 499
An author par excellence, a poetess, an activist and a professor of creative writing, all rolled into one, is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Her writings project women characters abounding with passion. They draw upon boundless inner strength. Her themes are the Indian experience, contemporary America, history, myth and the challenges of living in a multicultural world.

“Women are strong in a quiet way”
What is secret behind strong female protagonists?
I have always been interested in female psychology and motivations. I feel that women are strong, often in a quiet way, that is overlooked. I attempt to bring them into the centre of my fictional universe, to show the quiet heroism in their lives.

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