Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a novelist and screenwriter, led a life that spanned continents and cultures. Born to German-Jewish parents, she fled to England in 1939 due to the rise of the Nazi regime. This early displacement influenced her writing, which explored themes of alienation and cultural dislocation.

Life and Relocation

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born into a culturally assimilated German-Jewish family. When the political landscape in Germany became perilous, they sought refuge in England in 1939, when Ruth was twelve. In 1948, she became a British citizen and, in 1951, married C. S. H. Jhabvala, a Parsi architect. Shortly after, the couple moved to Delhi, India, where Jhabvala dedicated herself to writing while raising their three daughters.

Writing in India

In her introduction to Out of India: Selected Stories, titled “Myself in India,” Jhabvala candidly states that despite her long residence in India and her familial ties, she retained her European identity. Her initial works, often set against the backdrop of Indian society, are marked by an outsider’s perspective—detached and ironic. Her debut novel, To Whom She Will, earned her the moniker of Delhi’s Jane Austen, recognized for its wit and sharp social observation. Over the next fifteen years, she penned five novels and three collections of short stories, maintaining her comedic, yet increasingly somber, tone.

Collaborating with Merchant and Ivory

In the 1960s, Jhabvala embarked on a prolific collaboration with filmmakers Ismael Merchant and James Ivory. This partnership saw her transitioning into screenwriting, where she adapted literary works by authors like Henry James and E. M. Forster. These cinematic ventures began to influence her writing style. By the time she published A New Dominion in 1972, critics observed a shift in her work, likening it more to Forster than Austen. Her celebrated novel, Heat and Dust, released in 1975, juxtaposes two narratives: a colonial wife’s scandalous affair in the 1920s, and her step-granddaughter’s quest in India decades later. This novel, considered a masterpiece, garnered the Booker Prize.

Relocation to New York

In 1974, Jhabvala relocated to New York City, visiting Delhi only briefly each year. This move broadened the scope of her work. Her novel In Search of Love and Beauty delves into the lives of German-Jewish refugees over four decades in America. Three Continents, drawing on the story of an Asian serial killer, weaves a complex tale involving an American family and their interactions with Indians and Eurasians, with settings that range from the United States to England and India. She continued her film work with Merchant and Ivory, earning accolades for movies like The Remains of the Day, though not all projects, such as Jefferson in Paris, met with equal success. Her screenwriting prowess earned her numerous awards, including two Academy Awards for her adaptations of Room with a View and Howards End.

Exploring Themes of Alienation

Jhabvala’s narratives often revolve around themes of alienation and the struggles of individuals who feel geographically and spiritually unmoored. Whether rooted in India or abroad, these themes persist. In To Whom She Will, cultural divides separate two lovers: one an anglicized Hindu, the other a Punjabi Hindu. Heat and Dust reveals parallel tales of love and betrayal, featuring a Western woman and an Indian man, while the British narrator finds herself more estranged from her hippie lover than from the Indian man she meets. Her American-set novels further complicate the theme of alienation. In In Search of Love and Beauty, a family of immigrants finds themselves adrift in New York. Meanwhile, the family in Three Continents , well-settled in Connecticut, voluntarily...