My First Novel, 'the Tiger's Daughter,' Embodies

My First Novel, 'the Tiger's Daughter,' Embodies The Loneliness I Felt But Could Not Acknowledge, Even To Myself, As I Negotiated The No Man's Land Between The Country Of My Past And The Continent Of My Present.

In Hindu Societies, Especially Overprotected Patriarchal Families Like Mine, Daughters Are Not At All Desirable. They Are Trouble. And A Mother Who, As Mine Did, Has Three Daughters, No Sons, Is Supposed To Go And Hang Herself, Kill Herself, Because It Is Such An Unlucky Kind Of Motherhood To Have.

Growing Up In An Old-fashioned Bengali Hindu Family And Going To A Convent School Run By Stern Irish Nuns, I Was Brought Up To Revere Rules. Without Rules, There Was Only Anarchy.

I Am A Naturalized U.s. Citizen, Which Means That, Unlike Native-born Citizens, I Had To Prove To The U.s. Government That I Merited Citizenship.

You See For Me, America Is An Idea. It Is A Stage For Transformation. I Felt When I Came To Iowa City From Calcutta That Suddenly I Could Be A New Person . . . What America Offers Me Is Romanticism And Hope . . . Suddenly, I Found Myself In A Country Where