Order of Book Series
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Anita Desai Books in Order

Anita Desai has written 21 books, published between 1963 and 2024. The first book is Cry, the Peacock (1963) and the newest is Rosarita (2024). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
21
Published
1963–2024
Pages on record
4,554 in 20 of 21 books
Reading time
76–114 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 4,554 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 20 of 21 titles with a page count on record.

See all 21 books in order Printable Anita Desai checklist

Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar in 1937, is an Indian novelist and emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at MIT. Desai has reached the Booker Prize shortlist three times. Fire on the Mountain (1977) won the Sahitya Akademi Award, and The Village by the Sea took the Guardian Prize. The 21 catalogued books run from Cry, the Peacock (1963) to Rosarita (2024) and include Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and the story collection Games at Twilight (1978). Catalogue subjects list India, families, sisters and grandmothers.

How many Anita Desai books are there?

Anita Desai has 21 books, released between 1963 and 2024.

Anita Desai Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 21 Anita Desai books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of Cry, the Peacock by Anita Desai (1963)
  2. Cover of Voices in the City by Anita Desai (1965)
  3. Cover of Bye Bye Blackbird by Anita Desai (1968)
  4. Cover of The Peacock Garden by Anita Desai (1974)
  5. Cover of Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai (1977)
  6. Cover of Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai (1980)
  7. Cover of The Village by the Sea by Anita Desai (1982)
  8. Cover of Peasant Struggles in India by Anita Desai (1984)
  9. Cover of In Custody by Anita Desai (1984)
  10. Cover of Baumgartner's Bombay by Anita Desai (1989)
  11. Cover of Journey to Ithaca by Anita Desai (1995)
  12. Cover of Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai (1999)
  13. Cover of Diamond Dust: Stories by Anita Desai (2000)
  14. Cover of Collected Stories by Anita Desai (2008)
  15. Cover of The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai (2011)
  1. 1
    Cry, the Peacock1963 · 218 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1963218
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    Voices in the City1965 · 257 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1965257
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    Bye Bye Blackbird1968 · 230 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1968230
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    The Peacock Garden1974 · 80 pages · confirmed 1/4
    197480
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    Where Shall We Go This Summer?1975 · 157 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1975157
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    Fire on the Mountain1977 · 145 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1977145
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    Games at Twilight1978 · 137 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1978137
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    Clear Light of Day1980 · 182 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1980182
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Village by the Sea1982 · 272 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1982272
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    Peasant Struggles in India1984 · 772 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1984772
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    In Custody1984 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1984208
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    Baumgartner's Bombay1989 · 229 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1989229
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    Journey to Ithaca1995 · 312 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1995312
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    Scholar and Gypsy1996 · 64 pages · confirmed 1/4
    199664
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    Fasting, Feasting1999 · 227 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1999227
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    Diamond Dust: Stories2000 · 207 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2000207
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    The Zigzag Way2004 · 159 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2004159
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  18. 18
    Collected Stories2008 · confirmed 1/4
    2008–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  19. 19
    The Artist of Disappearance2011 · 156 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2011156
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  20. 20
    The Complete Stories2017 · 430 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2017430
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  21. 21
    Rosarita2024 · 112 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2024112
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Anita Desai books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Standalone books

21 books

21 Anita Desai titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Do you have to read Anita Desai books in order?

No. No source lists any of the 21 Anita Desai books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.

Where to start with Anita Desai

Start with Cry, the Peacock (1963), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Anita Desai book?

Rosarita (2024) is the newest Anita Desai book released so far.

Is there a new Anita Desai book coming?

No next Anita Desai book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Awards Anita Desai has won

Wikidata records 3 awards and 3 nominations for Anita Desai. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

Anita Desai at a glance

Still publishing
Anita Desai published a book as recently as 2024.
Release pace
Anita Desai books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
Length
4,554 pages across the 20 of 21 books with a recorded length, a median of 208 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Anita Desai books, 5 of 21, were published in the 1980s.

What the Anita Desai books are about

15 of the 21 Anita Desai books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: india is tagged on 8 of 15. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.