Bellow: Humboldt's Gift.

1975 Das: Manas (novel).

Jhabvala: Heat and Dust.

Singh: Train to Pakistan.

Rushdie: Grimus.

1976 The Painter of Signs. Levi: The Periodic Table.

Das: Alphabet of Lust (novel).

Rao: Comrade Kirillov.

1977 The Emerald Route (travel book). Desai: Fire on the Mountain.

Morrison: Song of Solomon.

1978 The Mahabharata (shortened modern prose version). Pillai: Kayar (The Rope).

Greene: The Human Factor.

P. Fitzgerald: The Bookshop.

1979 Desai: Games at Twilight.

Naipaul: A Bend in the River; India: A Wounded Civilization. Calvino: If on a winter's night a traveler.

1980 Made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Awarded the A. C. Benson award by the Royal Society of Literature. Desai: Clear Light of Day.

1981 Naipaul: Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey.

Rushdie: Midnight's Children.

1982 Malgudi Days (short stories). Levi: If not Now, When?

1983 A Tiger for Malgudi. Rushdie: Shame.

1984 Brookner: Hotel du Lac.

Barnes: Flaubert's Parrot.

1985 Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories. Mrquez: Love in the Time of Cholera.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

Arab Israeli War. Rising prices and downturn in Indian economy. India establishes a network of tiger reserves.

Resignation of Nixon following Watergate scandal. Strikes and demonstrations against Indira Gandhi. India explodes its first nuclear device.

State of emergency declared in India because of growing strikes and unrest (to 1977) First Indian satellite launched into space, on a Soviet rocket. End of Vietnam War. Civil war between Christians and Moslems in Lebanon.

Death of Mao Tse-Tung. Soweto massacre in South Africa.

First defeat of Congress Party in India since Independence. Morarji Desai becomes Prime Minister. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan since 1971, overthrown by the military, and later hanged (1979) Carter US President.

P. W. Botha comes to power in South Africa.

Margaret Thatcher first woman Prime Minister in UK. Carter and Brezhnev sign SALT-2 arms limitation treaty. Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Indira Gandhi wins election and returns to power. Sanjay Gandhi killed in plane crash. Lech Walesa leads strikes in Gdansk, Poland. Iran Iraq War (to 1988).

Ronald Reagan becomes US President.

Falklands War.

Emergency rule invoked in Punjab to suppress Sikh terrorism.

Indira Gandhi assassinated by Sikh bodyguard; her son, Rajiv, becomes Prime Minister (to 1989). Bhopal gas leak kills 2,000. Indian troops storm the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar. Famine in Ethiopia.

Heavy fighting in Kashmir. India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal disaster. Riots in South Africa. Gorbachev General Secretary in USSR.

DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT 1986 Talkative Man. Seth: The Golden Gate.

1987 Rushdie: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey.

Morrison: Beloved.

1988 A Writer's Nightmare: Selected Essays 19581988. Chatterjee: An English August.

Desai: Baumgartner's Bombay.

Ghosh: The Shadow Lines.

Rao: The Chessmaster and His Moves.