The Parrot Green Saree

The Parrot Green Saree is the story of two women, two generations, and two worlds moulded out of memory, expectations, and desire. Set primarily in the United States, this is also the story of displacement and loss, of a remembered homeland, of political and personal battles, of individual freedom. And it is about rebirth. (In Bengali, the novel was titled Phoenix.)

The last novel of Dev Sen's Naxal trilogy, The Parrot Green Saree explores the ethical and existential dilemmas of the urban, intellectual Indian, much like the two novels that precede it — I, Anupam and In a Foreign Land, By Chance. But it is unique in the way it looks at political issues through a turbulent mother–daughter relationship, bringing to Indian literature in Bengali, perhaps for the first time, a fascinating, highbrow, sexually daring, `unmotherly' mother of a grown-up daughter.

Can the brilliant, charming, and sexually adventurous Bipasha, an internationally renowned academic and poet, win back the love and confidence of Rohini, her alienated teenage daughter? And could the two women ever be friends.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen

is one of the prominent Bengali litterateurs of our times with more than 80 books to her name. A student of Presidency, Jadavpur, Indiana, Harvard, Cambridge, and Berkeley universities, and an outstanding academic, she retired as Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her works reflect her intellection on an amazing array of social, political, and psychological topics, under different genres like poetry, novels, short stories, plays, literary criticism, travelogues, translations, and children's literature. Her Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture series at Oxford University, a pioneering work on women's Ramayanas, has started a new school of studies on Sita across the world. Founder President of Soi—Women Writers' Association of West Bengal, she has received national and international awards, including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, and Bangla Akademi Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tutun Mukherjee

is former professor of Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad, India, and has also taught courses at Centre for Women's Studies and Department of Theatre Arts in the university. Her specialization is Literary Criticism and Theory, and her research interests include translation, women's writing, theatre, and film studies. She has written extensively on these subjects which overlap in her work. Besides articles and book chapters in national and international journals, as a single author and editor, her publications include I.A. Richards' Contribution to New Criticism, Chicago Critics, an evaluation, jointly edited Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literature, and Comparative Cultural Studies, to mention a few. She has earlier translated two brilliant works—the play Medea, and the novella Defying Winter (Sheetsahosik Hemantolok) by Nabaneeta Dev Sen.

**Contents and Sample Pages**