"Don't we all have to pay, no matter what we choose?" a young woman asksin "The Love of a Good Man," one of the unforgettable stories in ChitraDivakaruni's beautifully crafted exploration of the tensions between newlives and old. In tales set in India and the United States, sheilluminates the transformations of personal landscapes, real andimagined, brought about by the choices men and women make at every stageof their lives.

"The Love of a Good Man" tells of an Indian woman happily settled in theUnited States who must confront the past when her long-estranged fatherbegs to meet his only grandson. In the acclaimed "Mrs. Dutta Writes aLetter," a widow, inadvertently eavesdropping, discovers that hercherished, old-fashioned ways are an embarrassment to herdaughter-in-law. A young American woman joins a pilgrimage of women inKashmir and, in the land of her ancestors, comes to view herself and herfamily in a new light in "The Lives of Strangers." Two women, uprootedfrom their native land by violence and deception, find unexpectedcomfort and hope in each other in "The Blooming Season for Cacti." Andin the title story, a young woman turns to her painting and the wisdomof her grandmother for the strength to accept her fiance's past when itarrives on her doorstep.