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An old woman is upset that her silent life is about to be intruded upon by a great-granddaughter who is coming to spend her summer with her in Fire on the Mountain, a contemporary novel by Anita Desai. Summary of the Book Nanda Kaul just wants to be left alone. Her colourful past was full of life, but she feels she has earned the right to demand a little solitude in her home in the mountains of Kasauli. Her children call her sometimes, though mostly to her own dismay. She loves nothing more than time to herself and her memories. Fate decides otherwise when she receives a letter that her great-granddaughter is going to visit her for the summer. Just what Nanda needed no doubt, she didn't want to deal with a noisy, ever-curious teenager. When little Raka arrives though, Nanda is surprised. If anything, Raka resembles her, reclusive and overjoyed at spending time with herself in the woods and the mountainside. Nanda begins to bond with her, not expecting the arrival of an old friend she didn't want to talk to, and a friend who brings unwelcome attention to Nanda's idyllic world. About Anita Desai Anita Desai is an Indian novelist. Her works are best-sellers, some of which are: The Artist Of Disappearance, The Zigzag Way, Fasting, Feasting, In Custody, The Village By The Sea, Clear Light of Day and Voices in the City. The Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has been nominated thrice for the Man Booker Prize. The current title won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978. She has also won the British Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea.