Synopsis Little is known about the miniscule community of the Parsis in spite of their considerable and significant contribution to various facets of national life in the Indian subcontinent. The opening section of the present book fills this void by providing authentic and scholarly insights into the Zoroastrian faith and some of its tenets. Further, it attempts to explore the distinctive character of the Parsi novels of the current era—in India and in Pakistan—as is reflected in the works of Rohinton Mistry, Bapsi Sidhwa, Dina Mehta, Firdaus Kanga, Keki Daruwalla and Boman Desai. It reveals that this minority community has to cope with hegemonic forces, identity crises and the struggle to create its own space. All the concerns of the community—declining population, brain-drain, late marriages, inter-faith marriages, funeral rites, attitude to the girl-child, urbanization, alienation, modernist vs. traditionalist attitude to religion and the existence or non-existence of ethnic anxieties—are aptly delineated in the works of the Parsi authors and critically examined by scholars who have written in this two-volume book. Also discussed are the works of the latest Parsi writers, Ardashir Vakil, Meher Pestonji and Farishta Murzban Dinshaw whose writings focus on the marginalization of the Parsis in the recent years, dilution of values, isolation in the urban scenario and the influence of massive commercialization on the Parsi psyche.