Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and short story writer. She is the author of several novels, including Clear Light of Day, In Custody, Fasting, Feasting, and The Zigzag Way. Desai has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.