His novels to date have been set in India, told from the perspective of Parsis, and explore themes of family life, poverty, discrimination, and the corrupting influence of society.
[4] He worked in a bank for a while, before returning to academia at the University of Toronto where he obtained a BA in English and Philosophy.
[7] Three years later, Penguin Books Canada published his collection of 11 short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag.
The content of the book caused controversy at Mumbai University in 2010 due to language used against Bal Thackeray, leader of Shiv Sena, a political party from Maharashtra, as well as some remarks about Maharashtrians.
[12] Family Matters (2002) is a consideration of the difficulties that come with ageing, to which topic Mistry returned in 2008 with the short fiction The Scream (published as a separate volume, in support of World Literacy of Canada, with illustrations by Tony Urquhart).
[13] In 2002, Mistry cancelled his United States book tour for his novel Family Matters after he and his wife were targeted by security agents at every airport.