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Rohinton Mistry
(1952-)

Active: 1987- in Canada, North America

By John Eustace (Acadia University)

Indexing Data:

  • Active In: Canada, North America
  • Born In: India, South Asia
  • Activity: Novelist, Story Writer

Life, Works and Times

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Despite his status as one of Canada's most successful writers over the past 15 years, Rohinton Mistry writes very little about Canada itself. Instead, he focuses almost exclusively on India, and on the state of the Parsi community within that country. Even when he does write about Canada in his short stories or novels, he often represents his adopted country as the site of a Parsi diaspora, a place where immigrant Parsis renegotiate their identities and their relationships with one of India's most endangered communities.

The Parsi community of Bombay, defined by Zoroastrian faith and Persian heritage, would already have been in decline in 1952, when Mistry was born. The small ethnic group that had flourished under the British R

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First published 24 July 2002

Citation: Eustace, John. "Rohinton Mistry". The Literary Encyclopedia. 24 July 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3131, accessed 9 February 2010.]