Maura Moynihan's interests have reached as far and wide as her father's, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She is a designer and an award-winning musician. Her clothing line is now being sold through Saks Fifth Avenue. She has lived in New York City, as well as India, Washington, D.C., Kathmandu and Nepal. She has been a human rights activist and worked on many of her father's political campaigns. But she has always wanted, above all, to be a writer. (In interviews, Moynihan plainly states that this is the result of her Irish upbringing, which placed a high value on the written word.) It took a number of years, but Moynihan recently published a collection of stories in the U.S., and they have proven to be a hit. In the 1970s, Moynihan moved to New Delhi with her mother and father, who at the time was U.S. ambassador to India. She was fascinated by the country's contradictions: ancient religions amid urban chaos, the staggering disparity between rich and poor, and Indian familial tradition and the lure of Western modernity. Three decades of observation in India became the inspiration for "Yoga Hotel." In Moynihan's stories, British and American expatriates mingle with Indian friends, colleagues, and servants. In one story, Hari, a young Indian servant, hopes for a British boss's help in escaping a prearranged marriage. In another, an American embassy worker discovers her married lover used her to get a visa. These tales are both exotic and realistic, a tough balance to strike, but one which Moynihan has successfully pulled off. ($13.95 / 282 pages / Regan Books)