This volume highlights the movement from a shared past under the broad rubric of `Commonwealth', to an individual assertion of separate identities. Although, of the writers included in the volume, some may have adopted Western traditions of the novel, others have moved towards their own regional/local traditions of form and style. There is an unapologetic assertion of ethnic pride, a consciousness of the `otherness' in their literary production and, at the same time, they appeal to a larger global readership. Although a distinct pattern may not emerge out of the novels discussed, a distinct voice does emerge out of the artistic expression of the writers which is at once assertive and subdued, subtle and belligerent, artistic and propagandist, regional and cosmopolitan, subjective as also preoccupied with the universal concerns of humanity. Of interest also is the way these writers reconstruct the complexities and multiplicities of their lives through the various literary techniques they employ. The majority of the novelists included in this volume are those whose works have attracted critical attention not merely in their own countries but also internationally.