indian author book review

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission. Why trust us?

12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read

If you can’t travel there, the next best thing is to delve into one of these of works of fiction, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for insider tips and product reviews from our shopping experts

Sign up for our free indybest email, thanks for signing up to the indybest email.

From the cultural splendour of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur to the glamour of Bollywood, India is a fascinating place.

It’s the second most populous country in the world and there’s no better way to learn about its diverse culture and complex history than to read about it.

India has a long and distinguished literary record. The country’s first written works date as far back as 1500BC and its oral tradition is even older than that.

Centuries on, India’s literary culture is flourishing – as shown by the impressive number of Indian novelists who have won the Booker Prize over the past 50 years.

These include Arundhati Roy, the author of The God of Small Things , Aravind Adiga, who wrote The White Tiger, and Kiran Desai, the author of The Inheritance of Loss . Salman Rushdie, who was born in India but is a British citizen, won the 1981 Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children .

• 10 best books for expectant parents to prepare for birth and beyond
• 15 best books of 2019 to read now
• 9 best plastic-free living books
• 10 best books by women to read this International Women’s Day

We’ve chosen a mix of classics from years gone by and contemporary novels that portray modern-day life in India. Our main criteria was that the novels should be original, compelling and superbly written – the kind of books that convey the country’s distinctive culture in literary form.

Some of our choices, such as Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance , shine a light on times of political upheaval, while books like The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota, relay the struggles of migrant workers who leave India and cross the world to look for work. In other words, there’s something to suit all literary tastes.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps us to fund journalism across The Independent.

‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry, published by Faber & Faber: £9.99, Waterstones

Set in 1975, when prime minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency due to civil unrest, this fine novel is the story of four strangers – a widow, a young student who has been uprooted from his idyllic hill station home and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village. The quartet are thrust together, sharing a cramped apartment and facing an uncertain future in the middle of India’s political turmoil. Shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize, Mistry’s beautifully written novel is a literary tour de force.

‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth, published by Orion: £9.22, Amazon

Published in 1993, this huge tome – one of the longest novels published in a single volume in the English language – is a much-loved classic. Set in newly independent, post-partition India, it follows the stories of four families, focusing on Rupa Mehra’s efforts to arrange the marriage of her spirited student daughter Lata to “a suitable boy”. The first screen version of this epic story is currently being filmed in India and will be shown on BBC1 in late 2020. “It’s a charming, almost Austenesque story, with a delightfully relatable heroine, set against the turbulent background of India in the years following partition,” says TV screenwriter Andrew Davies.

‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy, published by Harper Perennial: £8.99, Foyles

This ambitious debut novel took the literary world by storm when it was published in 1997. Roy had previously been working as a screenwriter, actor and aerobics instructor but within months her book had sold all round the world and scooped the Booker Prize. Set in the southern state of Kerala, it relates the childhood experiences of twins Estha and Rahel, who see their world shaken irrevocably by the accidental death by drowning of their visiting English cousin. Lyrical, magical and beautifully written, it’s the compelling story of intertwining family lives, birth and death and love and loss.

‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie, published by Vintage: £9.99, Waterstones

Salman Rushdie’s classic novel has been feted by Booker judges an astonishing three times. It won the Booker in 1981, was judged to be the Booker of Bookers for the award’s 25th anniversary in 1993 and in 2008 was voted the greatest Booker Prize winner of all time. Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai, the novel’s protagonist, is one of 1,001 “midnight’s children” – all of whom have special gifts and are telepathically linked. Rushdie says in the introduction to the novel that in the west people tend to read the novel “as a fantasy” while in India readers think of it as “pretty realistic, almost a history book”.

‘The Inheritance of Loss’ by Kiran Desai, published by Penguin: £7.19 Amazon

When Kiran Desai’s second novel won the Booker Prize in 2006 head judge Hermione Lee described it as “a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness”. Set in 1986, it’s the powerful and very accessible story of a bitter old judge who lives in a dilapidated mansion high in the Himalayas, his orphaned granddaughter Sai, who has fallen in love with her tutor, and his cook, whose son Biju is working in New York and trying to stay one step ahead of the US immigration services.

‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts, published by Abacus: £10.99, Foyles

Gregory David Roberts’s rollercoaster life reads like a thriller. An ex-armed robber and reformed heroin addict, he escaped from an Australian prison to India, where he lived in a Mumbai slum, launched a free health clinic, joined the mafia and worked in the Bollywood movie industry. This page-turning debut novel is based on his own experiences in the Mumbai underworld and runs to a hefty 900 pages.

‘The White Tiger’ by Aravind Adiga, published by Atlantic: £8.99, Waterstones

The enthralling story of Balram Halwai’s journey from “sweet, innocent village fool” to ruthless entrepreneur scooped the Booker Prize in 2008. This brilliant debut novel tells the searing tale of two Indias – one of them Balram’s home village, where sewage seeps down the road and children are “too lean and short for their age,” the other the city of Delhi, with its noisy shopping malls, traffic jams and slums. Look out for the film too – a Netflix adaptation is underway, with Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles.

‘The Year of the Runaways’ by Sunjeev Sahota, published by Picador: £8.95, Amazon

Sunjeev Sahota’s second novel follows the lives of three migrant workers, Tochi, Avtar and Randeep, who flee India to look for work in England. The first half of the book features sections about their lives in India, relating their disparate reasons for moving to the other side of the world. Randeep marries to secure a visa, Avtar poses as a student and Tochi arrives in the UK on a fake passport in the back of a lorry. The book was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize.

‘The Lives of Others’ by Neel Mukherjee, published by Vintage: £8.95, Amazon

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award in 2014, Neel Mukherjee’s second novel is set in 1960s Kolkata and opens with the shocking account of a desperate man, who is unable to feed his starving wife and children and murders them before killing himself. This shocking scene is juxtaposed with the story of the wealthy Ghosh family, one of whom has become involved in extremist political activism. A powerful generational story of the chasm between the haves and have-nots.

‘The Great Indian Novel’ by Shashi Tharoor, published by Penguin: £5.99, Abe Books

First published in 1989, this book has a big title but Shashi Tharoor makes it clear from the start that it’s in deference to “its primary source of inspiration” – The Mahabharata , one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. In Sanskrit Maha means great and Bharata means India. Tharoor uses The Mahabharata as a framework for this satirical novel about the major Indian political events of the 20th century, from British colonial rule through to “the struggle for freedom and the triumphs and disappointments of Independence”.

‘Witness the Night’ by Kishwar Desai, published by Simon & Schuster: £7.71, Amazon

When a traumatised young girl is found barely alive in a house where 13 people have been murdered, the local police assume she is the killer. But a feisty gin-swilling social worker brought in to review the case is convinced the girl has been framed and sets out to prove her innocence. Kishwar Desai wrote her stunning debut novel in just four weeks, driven by anger at the hidden scandal of killing baby girls that still exists in parts of India. It went on to win the Costa first novel award in 2010.

‘Polite Society’ by Mahesh Rao, published by Tinder Press: £14.99, Foyles

If you’re looking for a lighter read, try Mahesh Rao’s beautifully observed and witty second novel, a contemporary version of Jane Austen’s Emma . Ania Khurana is a spoilt, rich 25-year-old living in a luxurious Delhi mansion. She knows everyone who is anyone in the city but she’s bored and in need of entertainment. Following in Emma Woodhouse’s matchmaking steps, Ania first finds a husband for her spinster aunt, then sets her sights on doing the same for her friend Dimple, only to find that the path of true love doesn’t always run smooth.

The verdict: Indian novels

Choosing a favourite out of these 12 extraordinary novels is a tough task but for beautiful writing and characters you really care about Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance is in a league of its own. If books with present-day themes are more to your taste don’t miss Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways . Set in both India and Sheffield, the city where three Indian migrants travel to seek work, it’s an insightful, timely read.

Voucher codes

For the latest discounts on audiobooks, try the link below:

• Audible discount codes

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

10 Best Indian Authors to Read Once in a Lifetime

Discover the literary treasures of India with our curated list of the ‘Best Indian Authors’ to read in 2024. From timeless classics to contemporary masterpieces, explore the diverse voices that have shaped Indian literature. Uncover the brilliance of renowned writers, their impactful storytelling, and the rich cultural tapestry woven into each narrative. Whether you’re a seasoned reader or a newcomer to Indian literature, this blog post is your guide to the must-read works that showcase the depth and beauty of Indian storytelling.

Books by Best Indian Authors

1. train to pakistan.

Ten million people—Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs—were on the move when the new state of Pakistan was publicly established in the summer of 1947. Nearly a million of them had perished by the time the monsoon arrived, and everyone in northern India was either hiding, in fear, or in arms. A few small towns tucked away in the furthest corners of the boundary were the last remaining havens of tranquility. Mano Majra was a village among them.

At the outset of this timeless book, Khushwant Singh continues, “It is a place where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years.” The community gets its first taste of the horrors of the civil war when the “ghost train,” a silent, magnificent burial train filled with the dead of thousands of refugees, comes one day at the end of the summer. The narrative of this remote community submerged in a sea of religious hatred is told in Train to Pakistan. It also tells the tale of a Muslim girl and a Sikh boy whose love endures and surpasses the devastation caused by conflict.

Amazon | Bookshop.org

2. Midnight’s Children

On August 15, 1947, at exactly midnight, Saleem Sinai was born—the exact day India gained its independence. Saleem is welcomed by fireworks, enthusiastic spectators, and Prime Minister Nehru personally. However, when he becomes older, he discovers the sinister ramifications of this coincidence. His every action is reflected and amplified in circumstances that affect the direction of national affairs; his existence is intrinsically linked to the history of his country; and his health and well-being are inexorably linked to that of his nation. The telepathic abilities that connect him to the 1,000 other “midnight’s children” in India—all of whom were born in that first hour and possess magical abilities—are arguably the most amazing.

This book is a masterful expression of the universal human comedy that is also an intriguing family saga and an astounding evocation of a large region and its people. Even after four decades of publication, Midnight’s Children continues to be regarded as a seminal piece of fiction and a masterful reading by one of the greatest authors of our day.

3. A Suitable Boy

A Suitable Boy paints a broad, panoramic picture of a complicated, multiethnic society in transition by telling the tale of common people entangled in a web of love, ambition, humor, grief, prejudice, reconciliation, the most careful social graces, and the most horrific brutality.

The central theme of Vikram Seth’s book is love: it tells the story of Lata and her mother Mrs. Rupa Mehra’s search for a suitable boy for Lata, whether through strict parental evaluation or affection. This engrossing story immerses us in the vividly imagined world of four sizable extended families during the early 1950s in a newly independent India that is going through a difficult period. It tells a captivating account of their lives and loves.

4. The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that haunting. —USA Today

Arundhati Roy’s contemporary masterpiece, which has been compared favorably to the writings of Faulkner and Dickens, is a potent blend of political drama, forbidden love story, and dramatic family history. The arrival of their stunning baby cousin, Sophie, completely upends the world of the seven-year-old twins, Rahel and Estha. This incident will reveal “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a nation teetering perilously near instability, as well as an illegal relationship and unintentional and intentional disasters.

The God of Small Things is a lush, lyrical, and unsettling Booker Prize winning classic that launched the author’s illustrious career of fiction and political criticism, which is still going strong today.

5. Partitions

Stunning debut book about uprooted kids and their escapes to safety, set in India during the bloody 1947 partition. As India is split into two countries, there is communal violence on both sides of the newly drawn boundary, and hordes of migrants are fleeing the chaos and bloodshed.

Twin Hindu boys Shankar and Keshav lose sight of their mother at an overrun rail station and join the throng of people searching for her. Simran Kaur, a young Sikh girl, has fled her father because he would sooner poison his daughter than see her violated.

And as he hobbles toward the newly formed Muslim nation of Pakistan, Ibrahim Masud, an aged Muslim physician, rediscovers his calling as a healer. He was driven from his hometown. This odd trio bands together as the displaced endure a range of tragedies, breaking every self-preservation guideline to create a hopeful future.

Partitions, a dramatic, brilliant tale of families and nations torn apart and rebuilt, presents a remarkable novelist with the power and elegance of a poet.

6. The Henna Artist

Captivated me from the first chapter to the final page. —Reese Witherspoon

The Henna Artist opens a gateway into a world that is simultaneously lush and interesting, stark and merciless. It does this through painting a vivid and captivating portrayal of one woman’s battle for fulfillment in a culture that is veering between the traditional and the modern.

Lakshmi, 17, leaves her violent marriage behind and travels alone to Jaipur, a brilliant pink city from the 1950s. There, she becomes the most sought-after henna artist and confidante among the upper-class, wealthy women. But she can never divulge her own as she is trusted with the wealthiest people’s secrets.

Lakshmi is well-known for her unique designs and wise counsel, but she has to exercise caution to stay away from envious rumors that could destroy her reputation and her business. One day, while she pursues her dream of living a self-sufficient existence, she is shocked to see her husband standing in front of her after all these years, bringing along a lively little girl who is her sister, a sister Lakshmi never knew she had.

All of a sudden, the prudence she has painstakingly cultivated as defense is called into question. She continues to persevere, using her gifts and encouraging everyone around her in the process.

7. Inglorious Empire

India’s economic contribution to the global economy was equal to that of Europe in the eighteenth century. After 200 years of British domination, by 1947, it had dropped six times. In addition to enslaving people and using deceit, the Empire also slaughtered defenseless protestors, blew up rebels with cannons, institutionalized bigotry, and starved millions of people.

Shashi Tharoor challenges British imperialism’s justification of itself as enlightened tyranny serving the interests of the governed by showing how every purported imperial “gift,” including the rule of law and the railways, was created only with Britain’s interests in mind.

He continues by demonstrating how India’s deindustrialization and the devastation of its textile sector served as the impetus for Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Tharoor uncovers the disgraceful truth of Britain’s tarnished Indian heritage with striking effect in this audacious and perceptive reevaluation of colonialism.

8. Annihilation of Caste

The political essay “Annihilation of Caste,” written by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a well-known political figure, eminent jurist, Buddhist activist, philosopher, anthropologist, historian, orator, writer, economist, scholar, and editor, was first published in May 1936 and spoke out against the caste system and Hindu orthodox religious leaders.

Throughout his life, Dr. Ambedkar battled for the rights of the Dalits and other socially oppressed groups, as well as the abolition of societal evils like untouchability. Jawaharlal Nehru chose Dr. Ambedkar as India’s first Law Minister in his Cabinet. 1990 saw the posthumous awarding of India’s highest civilian accolade, the “Bharat Ratna.”

One of the most important—yet little-known—pieces of Indian political literature is this one. It is a fearless critique of Hinduism and the caste structure. Ambedkar provides an academic analysis of Hindu texts, which support a rigidly hierarchical and immoral societal structure. Mahatma Gandhi, the most well-known Hindu in the world, openly addressed the provocation.

9. The Night Diary

A gripping, nuanced story of the human cost of conflict appropriate for both children and adults. -Kirkus, starred review

A moving, intimate, and hopeful story of India’s partition and one girl’s quest to find a new home in a split nation, in the style of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life.

1947 saw the division of India, which had just gained independence from British domination, into Pakistan and India. Thousands of people are killed crossing borders each year as a result of the division that has heightened tensions between Muslims and Hindus.

Half Hindu, half Muslim Nisha, twelve, no longer knows what her nation is or where she belongs. Nisha and her family flee to Pakistan after Papa determines it is too dangerous for them to remain there. Initially, they go by train, but eventually, they walk to their new home.

Nisha can’t imagine losing her homeland as well, especially after losing her mother when she was a kid. The journey is lengthy, challenging, and hazardous. Despite the fact that her nation has been destroyed, Nisha maintains hope that she will be able to rebuild herself.

The Night Diary, narrated through Nisha’s letters to her mother, is a poignant account of a young girl’s search for her own identity, her home, and a bright future.

10. The Namesake

Dazzling…An intimate, closely observed family portrait. —The New York Times

Meet the Ganguli family, recent Calcutta immigrants who are yearning to return home despite their best efforts to assimilate into American society.

The name they give their newborn child, Gogol, represents all the tensions that arise from upholding tradition in a foreign land—tensions that will follow Gogol throughout his own tortuous journey through betrayed allegiance, hilarious digressions, and heartbreaking love affairs.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri masterfully captures the experience of immigration and the complex relationships across generations in her book The Namesake.

More Historical Fiction Books

• The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
• The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
• The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand

Disclaimer: This blog post may contain affiliate links. If you click on these links and make a purchase, The Crimson Books may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

About the Author

TCB Team is a dedicated group of individuals who are passionate about literature and committed to critically analyzing and evaluating various literary works. The team consist of diverse members with varying backgrounds, interests, and expertise, which allows for a comprehensive and multifaceted assessment of books across different genres and themes.

Our primary goal is to provide insightful and unbiased reviews that help readers make informed decisions about their reading choices and contribute to the broader discourse surrounding literature.

Related Posts

5 Best Jo Nesbo Books – Dive into the Nordic Noir

5 Best Nora Roberts Books to Feel Warm this Winter

10 Halloween Cozy Mysteries to Keep You Entertained

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name  *

Email  *

Add Comment  *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Post Comment

• Chick-Lit Books
• Drama Books
• Fantasy Books
• Hindi Novels
• Historical Fiction Books
• Horror Books
• Humour Books
• Mythological Fiction Books
• Romance Novels
• Sci-Fi Books
• Short Story Books
• Thriller & Mystery Books
• Biography & Memoir
• Business and Economics
• History Books
• Religion & Mythology
• Self-help Books
• Travel and Places
• Conversations

75 Best Indian Authors and their Books in English: The Must-Read List (2020 Update)

[Updated on 26-April-2020]

I’ve been trying to compile this list of Best Indian Authors in the English Language for a long time now. Every time I start, I get stuck up at zeroing in on the names.

There are so many great writers and novelists from India and of Indian origin, in the English language, that it is difficult to keep the list short.

Though I’m not a great fan of literary fictions and tend to incline towards mysteries and thrillers, I have tried my best to be unbiased and impartial.

While creating such lists, it is unavoidable to incline towards one’s preferences and tastes. If you are a fan of romance, you’d prefer Durjoy Dutta over Amish Tripathi; if you are a fan of humour, you’d prefer Sidin Vadukut over Ravinder Singh, and vice versa.

So, I decided to break down the list into different genres.

Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2024)

THE ALL-TIME GREATS OF INDIAN ENGLISH WRITING

TOP INDIAN LITERARY FICTION WRITERS

BEST HISTORIANS AND WRITERS OF HISTORY BOOKS FROM INDIA

BEST INDIAN AUTHORS OF RELIGIOUS/MYTHOLOGY BOOKS

BEST INDIAN AUTHORS OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS

BEST MYTHOlOGICAL FICTION WRITERS IN INDIA

THE BEST WRITERS OF ROMANCE NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER AUTHORS IN INDIA

TOP-MOST WRITERS OF SCI-FI/FANTASY NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST CHICK-LIT AUTHORS IN INDIA

BEST AUTHORS OF SELF-HELP AUTHORS IN INDIA

Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2018)

Categorized in:

About the Author

Father to Ahaana. Husband to Mayuri. Co-founder at bookGeeks. Engineer at BMM.

Check latest articles from this author:

Swami vivekananda books | a list of 28 best books, sudha murty books | a list of 32 books by sudha murty (genre wise), 10 books on the partition of india that will break your heart (2024), related articles, latest indian novels 2024: discover india’s latest literary treasures.

Books by Indian Authors You Must Read at Least Once in Your Lifetime

India has a unique literary history and tradition that extends back over 3,000 years. Indian English literature may have a relatively shorter history, but is nonetheless rich with award-winning and critically acclaimed masterpieces no book lover should miss out on. To get your reading journey started, we’ve rounded up a list of the best books by Indian authors that have greatly influenced the course of the country’s literature.

Did you know you can now travel with Culture Trip? Book now and join one of our premium small-group tours to discover the world like never before.

White Tiger

Arvind Adiga’s Man-Booker-Prize-winning debut novel was widely acclaimed for its refreshing take on social class disparities and contradictions in contemporary India. The book is a thrilling first-person narrative told from the perspective of Balram Halwai, a young man from a poverty-stricken small village who moves to Delhi to work as a chauffeur for the elite.

Acclaimed Indian author Kamala Markandaya’s debut novel, Nectar in a Sieve , is the story of rapidly changing mid-20th-century India, told from the perspective of Rukhmani, a woman from rural and impoverished India. From her arranged marriage to Nathan, a farmer, to the changes brought about by the advent of a large tannery in their village, the novel covers a rich range of subjects with uniquely gripping prose.

Become a Culture Tripper!

Sign up to our newsletter to save up to 500$ on our unique trips..

See privacy policy .

The Great Indian Novel

This satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor recreates the Hindu epic Mahabharata within the context of the Indian Independence Movement and its following decades to become one of the most exciting reads in contemporary Indian literature. Recasting figures from India’s freedom struggle and politics as mythological characters from a 2,000-year-old epic, Tharoor’s work is a powerful read regardless of how familiar you are with the country.

Train to Pakistan

This historical Indian book by Khushwant Singh was widely revered during its release in 1956 for bringing a human perspective to the partition of British India into India and Pakistan. While most accounts of the partition at the time primarily focused on political aspects, Singh recounted the event in terms of human loss and horror. Train to Pakistan is an essential read for anyone looking to explore Indian literature or history.

Palace of Illusions

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s award-winning novel retells the Hindu mythological epic Mahabharata from the perspective of Draupadi, its lead female character. Draupadi is famous for having married all five of the Pandava brothers – the protagonists of the Mahabharata – and is an ever present, central character through their journey into exile and war. However, little is told from her perspective or about her motives and thoughts in the original epic, which Divakaruni tactfully reclaims in Palace of Illusions .

R.K. Narayan is among the most read and celebrated authors from Indian literature. Based in the famous fictional town of Malgudi in South India, The Guide follows the story of a Railway Raju, a corrupt tour guide, and the odd sequence of events which go on to make him a spiritual guide and eventually a revered holy man in the country.

Anita Desai’s novel , which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, revolves around Deven Sharma, an Urdu scholar in small town India who is caught in an ordinary, mundane life teaching the language to indifferent college students. When he is given a chance to interview Nur, one of the country’s finest Urdu poets, he sees it as a way to channel his love for the language in a more meaningful way.

The God of Small Things

The Booker-Prize-winning debut novel by Arundhati Roy tells the story of a family in 1960s Kerala. Delving deep into a range of issues from the caste system to the state’s encounters with communism, the story follows two fraternal twins, their parents and their extended family as they navigate life in this highly acclaimed work by the famous activist and writer.

A Fine Balance

Set in 1975 against the backdrop of the central government declaring a State of Emergency throughout India, Rohinton Mistry’s literary masterpiece tells the story of four strangers from different walks of life. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996, this book is a gripping account of political, social and economic forces that drove India through the late 20th-century and into its current form.

A Suitable Boy

Vikram Seth’s acclaimed work follows the story of four families in newly independent and post-partition India. Primarily revolving around the journey of Mrs. Rupa Mehra to find ‘a suitable boy’ to marry her daughter, the book meditates on a range of issues from post-partition politics, Hindu-Muslim strife, caste and class tensions, and changing family relationships. At 1,349 pages, Seth’s work is among the longest English language Indian books published in a single volume.

The Last Song of Dusk

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s debut novel tells the story of Anuradha, who moves to 1920s Bombay from Udaipur to marry Vardhmaan. The novel follows their blossoming marriage through its highs and lows with powerful, addictive prose.

KEEN TO EXPLORE THE WORLD?

Connect with like-minded people on our premium trips curated by local insiders and with care for the world

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.

Film & TV

Embrace the barbie spirit by visiting the world's most colourful cities.

Guides & Tips

Top tips for travelling in india.

The Best Places to Travel in November

See & Do

The top things to do and see in jaipur.

Fun-Filled Travel Experiences to Boost Your Serotonin Levels

Photo Journal: 10 Photos From Jaipur's Ganguar Festival

5 Delicious Indian Dry Bean and Lentil Recipes

This Homestay Could Help Save Rajasthan’s Nomadic Camel Pastoralists

How To Spend a Week in Maharashtra

How to spend 10 days in Madhya Pradesh, India

Simran Lal, Founder of Nicobar, On How She Launched Her Lifestyle Brand and Tips On Travelling to India

A Guide To Madhya Pradesh’s Tiger Reserves

• Post ID: 1504380
• Sponsored? No
• View Payload

• 2 Weeks for Couple
• 2 Weeks for Family
• Thailand Lantern Festival
• Indonesia(Bali)
• South Korea
• China (HK, Taiwan)
• Itinerary Ideas
• Asia Highlights Travel Reviews
• Thailand Travel Reviews
• Vietnam Travel Reviews
• Cambodia Travel Reviews
• Japan Travel Reviews
• Myanmar Travel Reviews
• China Travel Reviews

Best 15 Books by Indian Authors You Should Read Before Traveling

The Indian literary tradition is one of the oldest in the world spanning thousands of years. While the history of Indian English literature may be relatively short, there are still many award-winning and critical masterpieces that anyone who loves books can't miss.

Most Indian classics are set in the modern period after India's independence and continue to reflect Indian culture, tradition, and social values through the depiction of life in India and the life of Indian immigrants. These books will give readers a deeper understanding of India's history and how the nation of more than a billion people has emerged from various dilemmas.

To get you started on your reading journey, we've compiled a list of books by Indian authors who have had a great impact on Indian literature.

1. The Great Indian Novel

This is a satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor and is a fictional work that tells the story of the Mahabharata, a famous Indian epic. The book recasts and resets the story in the context of the Indian Independence Movement and the first three decades of post-independence.

Figures from Indian history are transformed into characters from mythology and the mythical story of India is retold as a history of more recent times. The author records India's struggle for freedom and independence with irony and poignancy.

Unlike regular historical fiction which deals with unearthing a secret or a perspective alteration of an already-told tale, this novel deals with the continuation of history in the present. Consequently, his plot forges a connection between the ancient and post-independent India. This is book a treat for all the fans of historical fiction.

• Author: Shashi Tharoor
• Year Published: 1989

2.Train to Pakistan

This book is one of the best Indian novels around and depicts the horrors that took place during the partition of India. This heart-tearing story is based on real events and set in the fictional town of Mano Majra.

The story shows how the brotherhood between two communities was replaced overnight by hatred sparked by the communal violence that erupted during the partition of India and Pakistan. This violence was based on religious divides.

In this novel, you can learn about the rivalry between Sikhs and Muslims that started because of a train that was loaded with dead bodies. Amidst this tragic story, there is also hope in the story of a Sikh boy and Muslim girl whose love transcends all the religious hate.

• Author: Khushwant Singh
• Year Published: 1956

3.Palace of Illusions

This an award-winning novel penned by famous novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This book retells the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, from the perspective of Draupadi, its lead female character who we don't hear from much in the ancient epic. Draupadi is the daughter of King Drupad, wife of the five Pandavas, and mistress of a breathtaking and stupendous palace.

The story takes us to a world that is half history, half myth, and full magic. The novel centers on Draupadi's struggles as a woman born in a patriarchal society at a time when the world is full of agony and controlled by the ever-manipulating hands of destiny.

Banerjee has written the whole story by stepping into Draupadi's shoes and writing a completely male dominant epic from a female's point of view. Her description of emotions like insecurity, jealousy, and love is amazing. No doubt this is the best fictional account of the Mahabharata and is a very unique book that has added a very interesting touch to the epic.

• Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• Year Published: 2008

4.The God of Small Things

It's not very often that an author's debut novel gets him/her The Man Booker Prize. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy was one of those great novels.

This book tells the story of a family in Kerala in the 1960s. Delving deep into a range of issues from the caste system to the state's encounters with communism. The story follows two fraternal twins, their parents, and their extended family as they navigate life in this highly acclaimed work by the famous activist and writer.

The novel begins in 1969 when India, although having achieved independence twenty years earlier, is still entrenched in the caste system. This powerful and well-written story tugs at the heartstrings as the author reveals to her readers a glimpse of an India clinging to its traditions.

• Author: Arundhati Roy
• Year Published: 1997

Discover real reviews of Highlights Travel Family 's best-rated service across trusted platforms.

5.The Guide

The Guide is a novel by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. The novel takes place in Malgudi, a fictional town in South India, and describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to spiritual guide and then one of the greatest saints of India. This novel won its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi English prize.

The movie "Guide" released in 1965 and featuring the iconic actor Dev Anand, was based on this novel.

This book is essentially a tale of human instincts, where faith and love can be expected to bring about a massive change in a man's nature, capable of transforming a devil into a saint.

• Author: R. K. Narayan
• Year Published: 1958

6.A Fine Balance

The novel is set in 1975 against the backdrop of the central government declaring a State of Emergency throughout India. The book centers on four characters from varied backgrounds: Dina is a beautiful widow, Ishvar and his nephew Omprakash just survived a massacre, and the young student Maneck. Through the story, they come together and develop a bond.

From suspicion to reconciliation, the main characters develop familial feelings in the suffocating misery of their existence. But as soon as life begins to look a little brighter, bad choices, cruel destinies, and terrible things follow.

This is a sweeping story that exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. This magnificent novel, though a fictitious story, captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism of India.

• Author: Rohinton Mistry
• Year Published: 1995

7.White Tiger

The White Tiger , which was a Booker Prize winner in 2008, is a classic novel that sheds light on a man in the deprived section of the society, who is desperate to come out of his misery and lead an independent life.

This story told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy, provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world. Throughout the seven nights in the story, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing tale of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his wits to help him along the way.

It's one of the best novels by an Indian author that was written in English and offers a great examination of issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption, and poverty in India.

• Author: Aravind Adiga

8.Wings of Fire

The Wings of Fire is written by a visionary scientist, who from very humble beginnings rose to be the President of India.

Dr. Kalam by narrating his life journey evokes the reader to identify with one's inner fire and potential, for he was of the firm belief that each one of us was born with the strength and ability to make a tangible change in the world.

This book is best suited for teenagers and young adults who dream and dare to challenge the status quo. The story shows us, how a person from a modest background ends up being the First Citizen of a nation of one billion people.

• Author: Agni Ki Udaan

9.A Suitable Boy

This is an epic love story set in post-independence India. The story is both funny and tragic with engaging and brilliantly observed characters. It centers around Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, both trying to find a 'suitable boy' for Lata to marry.

At 1,349 pages, it is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language. It is rare that such a long book is both an entertaining read and an intellectually satisfying challenge. Vikram Seth has more than succeeded in both areas.

The book meditates on a range of issues from post-partition politics, Hindu-Muslim strife, caste and class tensions, and changing family relationships. It's one of the nation's classic bestsellers and very worth a read.

• Author: Vikram Seth
• Year Published: 1993

10.The Discovery of India

The former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote this book during his imprisonment at Ahmednagar Fort for participating in the Quit India Movement (1942 – 1946).

The book begins with ancient history as Nehru writes at length on the Vedas, Upanishads, and textbooks of the ancient times and ends during the British raj. The book is a broad view of Indian history, culture, and philosophy.

Today, the Discovery of India is considered to be one of the finest writings on Indian History. The television series Bharat Ek Khoj, which was released in 1988, was based on this book.

• Author: Jawaharlal Nehru
• Year Published: 1946

11.Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children is a faux autobiography in which personal farce and political realism fuse, only to disintegrate into contingency and absurdity. Its narrator, Saleem Sinai, combines the story of his childhood with that of India itself, having been born at midnight on the day of India's independence.

His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs. The most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other "midnight's children," all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people. It stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.

• Author: Salman Rushdie
• Year Published: 1981

12.Shiva Trilogy

The Shiva Trilogy is the collection of the best-selling books The Immortals of Meluha , The Secret of the Nagas , and The Oath of the Vayuputra s written by Amish Tripathy.

This series is set in 1900 BC, during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization and revolves around the lives of the men who inhabited the land of Meluha, or as it was known back then—the Suryavanshi.

In this book series, the author describes the concepts of Karma and reincarnation with succinct ease. His style of writing is gripping and makes for a compelling read.

• Author: Amish Tripathy
• Years Published:  The Immortals of Meluha: 2010, The Secret of the Nagas: 2011, The Oath of the Vayuputras: 2013

13.The Interpreter of Maladies

This book is a collection of nine stories, all based on the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are lost between the two cultures.

In these nine poignant stories, the author tells of the Indian immigrant experience by connecting the tales and creating one voice for them. The stories share a sadness of being separated from one's family by thousands of miles, yet also offered a glimmer of hope for their futures in India or the United States.

The book was published in 1999 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000. To date, it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

• Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
• Year Published: 1999

14.India a Million Mutinies Now

I ndia a Million Mutinies Now is the third book in Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul's "India trilogy", the other two books are An Area of Darkness and India and A Wounded Civilization . The third book is the most impressive among the three novels.

This book tells the stories of many of the people the author met while traveling more than fifty years ago and explores how the characters have been steered by the innumerable frictions present in Indian society. The story focuses on the contradictions and compromises of religious faith and the whims and chaotic effects of random political forces.

• Author: V. S. Naipaul

15.The Inheritance of Loss

This novel is set in northeastern India near the border with Nepal. The main character, Sai, is a teenaged girl who lives with her grandfather, Judge Patel. Biju, the son of the judge's cook, is a young man making a living by working in restaurants as an illegal alien in the United States.

When a Nepalese insurgency in the mountains threatens Sai's new-sprung romance with her handsome tutor, their lives descend into chaos. The Gorkhaland movement is the historical backdrop of the novel.

The whole story is briskly paced and sumptuously written, reflecting on issues of nationhood, modernity, and class in a way that is both moving and significant. This book won a number of awards including the Man Booker Prize for that year, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007, and the 2006 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.

• Author: Kiran Desai
• Year Published: 2006

Visit India with Asia Highlights

Asia Highlights welcomes the chance to help you design your perfect trip to India. Check out the following links to learn more about our tours and get a head start on planning your hassle-free vacation today!

Why Asia Highlights (10,000+ reviews & 98.8% 5-star rating)

• Save Your Time:
• Less research, more enjoyment!
• Real-time 1V1 expert planning
• Maximize Your Flexibility:
• Personal local guide and ride
• Explore at your own pace
• Celebrate Your Journeys:
• Specially-crafted family adventures
• Celebrate milestones with style!

• 7-Day India Golden Triangle Tour
• 8-Day Diwali Festival in India Golden Triangle Tour 2024
• 9-Day India Tiger Safari and Golden Triangle Tour
• 9-Day India Golden Triangle with Varanasi
• 11-Day India and Nepal Tour
• 11-Day India Holi Festival Tour 2024
• 14-Day Rajasthan Tour Package for Westerners
• 14-Day Romantic Honeymoon Trip in India
• 14-Day India, Nepal, and Bhutan Tour
• 2-Week Luxury India Tour
• 21-Day India, Nepal and Bhutan Tour
• India Itineraries 2024: from 5 Days to 1 Month
• 2 Weeks in India 2024/2025: Top 4 Itineraries
• How to Plan a Trip to India 2024/2025 for First Timers
• How to Plan an Awesome Family Trip to India in 2024
• Plan an Awesome Trip to India, Bhutan and Nepal (6 Tips)
• How to Plan an India and Nepal Trip 2024/2025
• How to Plan a Trip to India for Holi 2024
• A Complete Guide to Experiencing Diwali
• How Much Does a Trip to India Cost?
• Is India Safe to Travel? Women & Kids (Tips for 2024/2025)
• Best (and Worst) Times to Visit India 2024, Rainy Season?
• Best Times to Visit the Taj Mahal？Expert Tips in 2024
• Weather and Where to Go in India in Janurary 2024/2025
• Weather and Places to Go in India in February 2024/2025
• Weather and Places to Go in India in March 2024/2025
• India Weather & Best Places to Visit in April 2024/2025
• Weather in India in May 2024 & Travel Tips for First-Timers
• India in June: Weather & Best Places to Visit 2024/2025
• India Weather & Best Places to Visit in July 2024/2025
• India in August: Weather & Best Places to Visit 2024/2025
• September Weather in India & Tips (Places+Crowds) 2024
• October Weather in India & Tips (Places+Crowds) 2024
• Weather and Where to Go in India in November 2024
• Weather in India in December 2024 & Tips for First Visits

Jessie was amazing ! Everything from her level of English to her understanding of what we valued .

We had a good time exploring the city with Selinda!

Our guide lele is a wealth of information, Lele is very professional and very attentive to our needs. Lele is amazing. Lele got everything spot on. It probably helps that Guilin is a brilliant place to visit so Lele has great material to work with but that doesn't take anything away from how much Lele helped make it a great trip.

Our guide for Beijing was super knowledgeable and experienced and able to help us to achieve as much as we wanted within the time given. We had a fun time guided by him as he is also super humorous and you can see how he interacts with the vendors and people whom he comes by. Thank you for a very enjoyable time in Beijing and accommodating to all our needs!

Our China Highlight guide. Michael, was attentive, thoughtful and knowledgeable. He narrated many interesting historical events about Chengdu while touring around the city and having afternoon tea with us. He was thoughtful to provide us with snacks during long hikes at Leshan or walks around the city.

She was very flexible and added extra time when we needed it and we felt extremely well taken care of. She also chose the best restaurants for us,

Our tour guide Helen, was excellent, she was very kind, professional and passionate for her work and she also loves Pandas! She will take you to take the best panda photos and to know more about Chengdu city. Our tour was great, she took us to all our destinations always with the best spots: Temples, pagodas, famous streets, theaters, pandas...you name it! Everything was great.

He picked up our pre-booked boat/other excursions tickets so we were able to avoid all the long lines and chaos. He is knowledgeable of the places we visited, courteous, fun to travel with and well-versed in Chinese classics.

Tom is the guide that will take you to where no other guide will. We pushed for the experience and Tom and the team delivered more than what we could have ever asked for. His English speaking ability and his Chinese history knowledge is second to none.

More reviews

Get Inspired with Some Popular Itineraries

At Asia Highlights, we create your kind of journey — your dates, your destinations, at your pace. You can have any trip tailor made for your travel.

More Travel Ideas and Inspiration

Sign up to Our Newsletter

Be the first to receive exciting updates, exclusive promotions, and valuable travel tips from our team of experts.

Why Asia Highlights

Where can we take you today.

• Middle East
• African Safari

• Travel Agents
• Our Differences
• Privacy Policy

Address: Building 6, Chuangyi Business Park, 70 Qilidian Road, Guilin, Guangxi, 541004, China

Top 4 Book Recommendations See All

Top 5 Extracts See All

Top 5 Interviews See All

Top 4 Childrens Books See All

Top 4 Quizzes See All

Top 4 Asides See All

Top 4 Press Room See All

• Editors Recommend

100 Best Books and Novels by Indian Authors

In a country as large and diverse as India, there is always a story waiting to be told. Which is why, we’ve saved you the trouble and put together some of the timeless gems that are available in Indian English writing today. Here are our top 100 picks, written by critically-acclaimed Indian authors, or authors of Indian origin.

In this brilliant retelling of the Ramayana, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita’s version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity, and honour, it is also about women’s struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as Chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills.

Get your copy here!

The Far Field by  Madhuri Vijay 

Latitudes of Longing by  Shubhangi Swarup

An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup’s novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams. The story sweeps through worlds and times that are inhabited by: a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who talks to them; Lord Goodenough who travels around the furthest reaches of the Raj, giving names to nameless places; a geologist working towards ending futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a superstitious dictator and a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who turns first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents.

Paper Moon by  Rehana Munir 

When her estranged father passes away, Fiza, fresh out of college, discovers that he has left her a tidy sum in the hope that she will open a bookshop… Overnight, Fiza’s placid life is thrown into a whirl of decor decisions and book-buying sprees, unconventional staff and colourful patrons, small pleasures and little heartbreaks, as the store — Paper Moon — begins to take shape in a charming, old Bandra mansion. To top it all, she is being wooed by Iqbal, a mysterious customer who frequents the shop, and Dhruv, her ex-boyfriend, her feelings for whom are still confused.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters  by  Balli Kaur Jaswal 

The Shergill sisters never needed each other–until they did. Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina Shergill have never been close but when their mother dies, she has only one request: that they take a pilgrimage across India to carry out her final rites. While an extended family holiday is the last thing they want, each sister has her own reasons to run away from her life. Rajni is the archetypal know-it-all eldest but her son dropped a bombshell before she left and, for the first time, she doesn’t know what the future holds. Middle sister Jezmeen, always a loudmouth, has translated her need for attention into life as a struggling actress. But her career is on the skids after an incident went viral and now she’s desperate to find her voice again. Shirina, the golden child, has confounded expectations by having an arranged marriage and moving to the other side of the world. But her perfect life isn’t what it seems and time is running out to make the right choice. As the miles rack up on their jaunt across India, the secrets of the past and present are sure to spill out.

Adulting by  Neharika Gupta 

Social media manager and popular blogger Aisha is flirty and flamboyant … even as she battles personal demons that tell her she must stop eating if she wants to stay pretty.

Ruhi couldn’t be more different from her friend Aisha. Working at Literacy Publishing, she feels grossly underappreciated by the editor-in-chief, who happens to be her mother. What keeps her going are her own ambitions – and her handsome author Tejas.

Bestselling novelist Tejas has a bad case of writer’s block. He leans on Ruhi for emotional support before getting enamored by Aisha as he struggles to live up to everyone’s expectations, including his own.

The Swap by  Shuma Raha

There is nothing really wrong with Priya Bakshi and Akash Srivastav’s six-year-old marriage … except that Priya is having an affair. And Akash, too, seems to be on the lookout for sexual adventure. When Tarun, their richer, older, and manipulative friend, tells them about Delhi’s couple-swapping parties, Akash wants to jump right in. With some reluctance, Priya agrees to give him company. Soon, Priya and Akash find themselves in a world of swinging couples and sexual abandon, joined by friends who are equally keen to test the waters. But as the clothes come off and the secrets begin to tumble out, it seems that none of them will emerge unscathed.Witty and racy, The Swap is a sparkling social novel about sex, marriage, and morality.

Bhaunri by  Anukrti Upadhyay

Can too much love be a dangerous thing? Bhaunri is married, as is the custom in her tribe of nomadic blacksmiths when she is still a child. When she is finally sent away to her husband’s home as a young woman, she finds herself drawn deeply and powerfully towards the gruff and handsome Bheema. Bheema, however, is far from the ideal husband, and when he strays one time too many, Bhaunri’s love for him begins to fester and grow into something dark and fearsome.

The Twentieth Wife by  Indu Sundaresan 

Mehrunnisa – the Sun of Women – one of India’s most legendary and controversial empresses … a woman who overcame insurmountable obstacles through sheer brilliance and determination … whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire. She is the twentieth wife. The daughter of refugees from Persia, growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar’s opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa first encounters Prince Salim on his wedding day. Eight years old at the time, she decides that she too will one day become Salim’s wife – unaware of the great price she and her family will pay for this dream.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by  Anuja Chauhan

From the bestselling author of The Zoya Factor and Battle for Bittora …

Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.

Baaz by  Anuja Chauhan

The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed ‘Sabre Slayer’ for the devastation it has wreaked in the ranks of Pakistan’s F-86 Sabre Squadrons. Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou, and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana, and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure – until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war…Pulsating with love, laughter, and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan’s tribute to our men in uniform.

The Radiance of a Thousand Sons by  Manreet Sodhi Someshwar 

Niki’s determination to complete her dead father’s unfinished book, his life’s work, takes her from India to New York City where her pursuit of a mysterious immigrant woman turns into an obsession that begins to imperil her daughter, her marriage, and, eventually, Niki herself. When a blizzard blankets NYC, Niki finds herself on a path where the present and past collide violently. Propulsive and poetic, this elegant literary thriller melds the fervour of Punjab with the frenzy of New York. Spanning the cataclysms of Partition and 9/11, via the brutality of Emergency and the pogrom of 1984, the novel explores the impossible choices women are forced to make in the face of violence, the ties that connect them across ages, and the secrets they store.

Jorasanko by  Aruna Chakravarti 

A sensitive portrayal of the hopes and fears, triumphs and defeats experienced by the women of the Tagore household. in a sprawling novel that spans a unique phase in the history of Bengal and India, Aruna Chakravarti provides a fascinating account of how the Tagore women influenced and were in turn influenced by their illustrious male counterparts, the times they lived in and the family they belonged to. Jorasanko mirrors the hopes and fears, triumphs and defeats that the women of the Tagore household experienced in their intricate interpersonal relationships, as well as the adjustments they were continually called upon to make as daughters and daughters-in-law of one of the most eminent families of the land.

The Mountain of Light by  Indu Sundaresan 

The much-awaited novel from the author of the bestselling Taj trilogy! Told in her inimitable trademark style, Indu Sundaresan’s The Mountain of Light is a wondrous and historically rich tale, as clear and as dazzling as a diamond itself.

Koi Good News? by  Zarreen Khan 

When Mona Mathur of Dehradun had married her college sweetheart Ramit Deol of Amritsar, there were two things she wasn’t prepared for:1. The size of the Deol family – it put any Sooraj Barjatiya movie to shame2. The fertility of the Deol family – they reproduce faster than any other species are known to mankind for four years now, Mona and Ramit have done the unthinkable and remained childless. Of course, that also means that they’ve battled that one question day in and day out: ‘Koi Good News?’ It doesn’t matter that they have been happy to be child-free – they are married; they are expected to make babies. After all, there are grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, and even colony aunties in waiting.

The Gypsy Goddess by  Meena Kandasamy

Village landlords force peasants to break their backs in the paddy fields or suffer beatings as punishment. So it is little wonder that the communist party begins to gain traction, a small spark of defiance spreading from villager to villager. As communities across the region begin to take a stand against the landlords, the landlords vow to break them: party organizers suffer grisly deaths and the flow of marketplace food dries up. But intimidation only serves to make the villagers’ resistance burn more fiercely. Finally, the landlords descend on one village to set an example to the others.

Nobody Killed Her by  Sabyn Javeri 

The nation sinks deep into mourning as news of former Prime Minister Rani Shah’s assassination arrives. Intelligence agencies, opposition leaders, the army top brass, her closest relatives – all seem to be shifting in their chairs even as special investigative teams gear up to file a report. Conspiracy theories abound for there were many who stood to gain if she pulled out of the imminent elections. The needle of suspicion points most immediately to Madam Shah’s close confidante Nazneen Khan, who was seen sitting right beside her in the convoy and, oddly, escaped the bomb blast unscathed. Sabyn Javeri’s tale of intense friendship between two ambitious women unfolds in a country steeped in fanaticism and patriarchy. Set against a backdrop of intrigue and political machinations, this is a novel about love, loyalty, obsession, and deception.

Daura by  Anukrti Upadhyay

A journey into the dark heart of the desert. A young District Collector is posted to one of the furthest outposts of rural Rajasthan and finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the lives and troubles of the common people there. Then one day, with the help of a mysterious musician, the Sarangiya, he has an encounter with beauty in its purest, most absolute form – an encounter that precipitates a dangerous descent. The pages from the journal he keeps are combined with the narratives of various people around him to create a compelling account of his slide away from reality.

Ghachar Ghochar by  Vivek Shanbhag ,  Srinath Perur

Cuckold by  Kiran Nagarkar 

The time is the early 16th century. The Rajput kingdom of Mewar is at the height of its power. It is locked in a war with the Sultanates of Delhi, Gujarat, and Malwa. But there is another deadly battle being waged within Mewar itself. who will inherit the throne after the death of the Maharana? The course of history, not just of Mewar but of the whole of India, is about to be changed forever

The White Tiger by  Aravind Adiga

Winner of the 2008 Booker Prize, now a major Netflix film starring Priyanka Chopra and Rajkumar RaoMeet Balram Halwai, the ‘white tiger’: servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer…

The White Tiger  is a tale of two Indias. Balram’s journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing, and altogether unforgettable.

Selection Day by  Aravind Adiga 

Serious Men by  Manu Joseph

The Illicit Happiness Of Other People by  Manu Joseph 

Rumi: A New Translation by  Farrukh Dhondy 

Marked by the lyrical beauty and spiritual insight, a deep understanding of human suffering that coexists with rapturous abandon, the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi continue to be relevant almost eight centuries after they were composed, with contemporary audiences finding new meanings in them. Rumi’s poems bring together the divine and the human, the mystical and the corporeal to create a vivid kaleidoscope of poetic images.

India’s Most Haunted by  K. Hari Kumar 

There are places where the past lingers, making shapes in the moonlight and blowing in the curtains even as the air goes suddenly still. K. Hari Kumar, the bestselling author of spine-chilling horror fiction, brings you the terrifying tales of some of India’s most haunted places – including Bhangarh Fort, Malabar Hill’s Tower of Silence, and Jammu and Kashmir’s notorious Khooni Nala. Whether you read them at night or in daylight, these stories will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Best Indian Short Stories by  Khushwant Singh

Dopehri by  Pankaj Kapur 

The Belated Bachelor Party   by  Ravinder Singh

Parliamental by  Meghnad S.

Raghav Marathe, cynical millennial turned reluctant policy analyst, arrives in Delhi with his boss, Prabhu Srikar of the RJM party, and a first-time MP with a tendency to throw up. As they navigate their way around Parliament, handling backroom deals, nepotistic party heads, and laws that seem to be tailor-made to benefit the ruling party, they learn that politics and idealism don’t always go together. While Srikar tries to adapt to his new avatar and lie low, Raghav uses his Twitter alter ego, @Arnavinator, to vent his frustration and spread chaos.But when a new bill that threatens freedom of expression is bulldozed through with impunity, Srikar and Raghav must make a choice – to compromise on their values or to stand up for what is right. But at what cost? And can they and their unlikely allies – a jaded lawyer, an ambitious journalist and a rising YouTube star – really make a difference?

Best Indian Short Stories: Volume 2 by  Khushwant Singh 

India’s Wars by  Arjun Subramaniam

The Japanese Wife by  Basu Kunal

An Indian man writes to a Japanese woman. She writes back. The pen-friends fall in love and exchange their vows over letters, then live as man and wife without ever setting eyes on each other – their intimacy of words tested finally by life’s miraculous upheavals.The twelve stories in this collection are about the unexpected. An American professor visits India with the purpose of committing suicide, and goes on a desert journey with the daughter of a snake-charmer. A honeymooning Indian couple is caught up in the Tiananmen Square unrest. A Russian prostitute discovers her roots in the company of Calcutta revolutionaries. A holocaust victim stands tall among strangers in a landscape of hate. These are chronicles of memory and dreams born at the crossroads of civilizations. They parade a cast of angels and demons rubbing shoulders with those whose lives are never quite as ordinary as they seem.

14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray by  Bhaskar Chattopadhyay 

Narasimha by  Kevin Missal 

Narasimha, once a brave soldier, has left the war and lies low as a physician in a village. But a familiar face from his past seeks his help to stop the tyranny of the blind usurper Andhaka. If Narasimha refuses, the world might just end. What will he do? And why did he leave the war in the first place? Prahlad, the interim king of Kashyapuri, is torn between the ideals of his unrighteous father and his love for Lord Vishnu. Whom will he choose? Hiranyakashyap, the ruler of the Asura Empire, wants to avenge the death of his wife. To do that, he must go through the Trials and get the ultimate weapon – the Brahmastra. But the Trials have sent so many others to their death. Can Hiranyakashyap survive?

Pather Panchali by  Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

Pather Panchali is a vivid, moving and authentic portrayal of the life of a Brahmin household seen through the eyes of the two young children of the family, Opu and his elder sister Durga. Few authors in any literature can rival Bandhopadhyaya’s understanding of the child mind.

Ivory Throne by  Manu S. Pillai 

In 1498, when Vasco da Gama set foot in Kerala looking for Christians and spices, he unleashed a wave of political fury that would topple local powers like a house of cards. The cosmopolitan fabric of a vibrant trading society – with its Jewish and Arab merchants, Chinese pirate heroes and masterful Hindu Zamorins – was ripped apart, heralding an age of violence and bloodshed. One prince, however, emerged triumphant from this descent into chaos. Shrewdly marrying Western arms to Eastern strategy, Martanda Varma consecrated the dominion of Travancore, destined to become one of the most dutiful pillars of the British Raj. What followed was two centuries of internecine conflict in one of India’s premier princely states, culminating in a dynastic feud between two sisters battling to steer the fortunes of their house on the eve of Independence.

The Twice-born by  Aatish Taseer 

When Aatish Taseer first came to Benares, he was eighteen, the Westernized child of an Indian journalist and a Pakistani politician, raised among the intellectual and cultural elite of New Delhi. Nearly two decades later, Taseer leaves his life in Manhattan to go in search of the Brahmins, wanting to understand his own estrangement from India through their ties to tradition. Known as the twice-born – first into the flesh, and again when initiated into their vocation – the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity. At every turn, the seductive, homogenizing force of modernity collides with the insistent presence of the past. From the narrow streets of the temple town to a Modi rally in Delhi, among the blossoming cotton trees and the bathers and burning corpses of the Ganges, Taseer struggles to reconcile magic with reason, faith in tradition with hope for the future and the brutalities of the caste system, all the while challenging his own myths about himself, his past, and his countries old and new.

Solo by  Rana Dasgupta 

Before the man lost his sight, he read this story in a magazine. A group of explorers came upon a community of parrots speaking the language of a society that had been wiped out in a recent catastrophe. Astonished by this discovery, they put the parrots in cages and sent them home so that linguists might record what remained of the lost language. But the parrots, already traumatised by the devastation they had recently witnessed, died on the way. Wondering if, unlike these hapless parrots, he has any wisdom to leave to the world, one-hundred-year-old Ulrich embarks on an epic armchair journey through the twists and turns of his country’s turbulent century – and through his own century of lost love and failed chemistry – and finds his way to an astonishing epiphany of redemption and enlightenment.

Sex, Scotch & Scholarship by  Khushwant Singh  

In this anthology, which comprises some of Khushwant Singh’s best writing, you can look forward to some talk of sex, a little of scotch and much scholarship. The collection attempts to mirror the author’s concerns and passions-his love of nature, his anguish over the situation in Punjab, his interest in religions of the world, and his scholarly research on the one into which he was born, Sikhism.

Darkness by  Ratnakar Matkari 

A boy who can predict the exact date a person will die… An elderly woman who knows that death is close, but learns how to cheat it… A child with a dangerous friend who happens to be invisible… A ghost who can’t stop reliving his suicide over and over again…People you’ll wish you never have to meet, and stories you’ll never forget.

Accidental Magic by  Keshava Guha 

Dozakhnama by  Rabisankar Bal

Who tells the greatest story God or Manto? Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib and a history of Indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.

Shivaji: The Great Maratha  by  Ranjit Desai 

 Young Shivaji reaches Pune, a dying fort city, with his mother Jijabai and lights the first lamp within its ruins. While his father Shahaji Bhosle is away on deputation by the Adil Shah sultanate after having failed in a revolt against it, Shivaji learns how an empire is built from the ground up. Thus begins the life of the Great Maratha. What awaits Shivaji is nothing short of the vast scroll of history, and it takes him from Surat to Thanjavur and all the way to Aurangzeb’s durbar in Agra. He dreams of freeing his land from the clutches of Mughal rule, and though he suffers many defeats and personal losses along the way he never gives up his vision of Hindavi Swaraj. Amidst political intrigue and a chain of skirmishes, Shivaji becomes a leader, a warrior and a tactician par excellence, driven by immense pride and love for his motherland.

Inheritance by  Balli Kaur Jaswal

Fifteen-year-old Amrit disappears from her house in the middle of the night and returns a different person. Over the next two decades, her actions affect three generations of her Sikh family in Singapore. When Narain, her brother, leaves his new life in America to take care of her, he must find his place again in a country and a community that will not accept him for who he is. Gurdev, the eldest, raises his three daughters with fear and caution over what they might become. And Harbeer, whose wife has left him, is the unyielding patriarch who must reconcile his pride and learn to cope with his own demons.

Sugar bread by  Balli Kaur Jaswal 

Ten-year-old Pin knows she must not become like her mother Jini but doesn’t know why. She tries to figure out her mother’s moods through her cooking, even as she fights other battles-being a bursary student in an elite Christian school, facing hateful racial taunts from Bus Uncle and classmates like Abigail Goh.

When her meddlesome Nani ji Kulwant moves in, installing portraits of Sikh gurus whose features seem the change according to the atmosphere in the house, she brings with her a new set of rules. And old secrets begin to tumble out.

Strangers to Ourselves by  Shashi Deshpande

 Set in Mumbai, Shashi Deshpande’s novel tells the story of an unlikely love between two unusual people. Tender and tempestuous by turns, it draws you into the conflicts, languid pleasures and sharp sorrows of falling in love with a stranger who can never entirely be yours.

Ravan and Eddie  by  Kiran Nagarkar

An extremely funny novel about two larger-than-life heroes and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in post-colonial urban India. Ravan and Eddie remain one of the finest books written with Mumbai as a backdrop. It’s uproariously funny, outrageously irreverent … [and] reveals the city as a character, an actor, a living being.

The Extras by  Kiran Nagarkar 

Ravan and Eddie are back! They’ve been mortal enemies since birth because of a bizarre family feud. But now Ravan and Eddie’s lives converge as they share an obsession: having grown up in Bombay, the city of dancing movie stars and glitzy glamour, both dream of strutting down the road to superstardom. Can Ravan (a lowly taxi driver) and Eddie (a bouncer-cum-bartender at a speakeasy) rise from their dusty CWD chawls to the glittering heights of international fame?

Home Boy by  H.M. Naqvi 

Rollicking, bittersweet and sharply observed, Home Boy is at once an immigrant’s tale, a mystery, a story of love and loss as well as a unique meditation on Americana and notions of collective identity. It announces the debut of an original, electrifying voice in contemporary fiction.

Girl in White Cotton by   Avni Doshi 

Antara has never understood her mother Tara’s decisions – walking out on her marriage to follow a guru, living on the streets like a beggar, shacking up with an unknown artist, rebelling against society’s expectations … But when Tara starts losing her memory, Antara searches for a way to make peace with their shared past, a past that haunts them both.

As she relives her childhood in Pune in the eighties, the time she spent at a Catholic boarding school in the hills of Maharashtra, and her years as a young artist in Bombay, Antara comes up against her own fears and neuroses, realizing she might not be so different from Tara after all.

The Last Queen by  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 

The latest from the bestselling author of The Forest of Enchantments …

While we have all heard tales of Rani Lakshmi Bai and Padmavati, not many of us are familiar with another Indian queen.

Daughter of the royal kennel keeper, the beautiful Jindan Kaur went on to become Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s youngest and last queen; his favorite. She became regent when her son Dalip, barely six years old, unexpectedly inherited the throne. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, passionate, and dedicated to protecting her son’s heritage, Jindan distrusted the British and fought hard to keep them from annexing Punjab. Defying tradition, she stepped out of the zenana, cast aside the veil, and conducted state business in public. Addressing her Khalsa troops herself, she inspired her men in two wars against the ‘firangs’. Her power and influence were so formidable that the British, fearing an uprising, robbed the rebel queen of everything she had, including her son. She was imprisoned and exiled. But that did not crush her indomitable will.

The Householder by Amitabha Bagchi

With uncommon acuity, Amitabha Bagchi writes of a world where favours are currency, where access to power sometimes feels like a prerequisite for survival, where power can be both total and ephemeral. The Householder is a view from within this world, an examination of the moral condition of our times.

Above Average by  Amitabh Bagchi 

Lyrical, spare, and charmingly self-deprecatory Amitabha Bagchi’s debut novel is a deeply funny account of growing up intelligent, sensitive, ambitious, and confused.

What Maya Saw: A Tale of Shadows, Secrets, Clues by  Shabnam Minwalla 

Almost from the moment, Maya steps into St Paul’s College, she is afraid. Everywhere she goes, she encounters questions and secrets. Not to mention the Shadows – a bunch of drop-dead gorgeous students who she realizes will do anything to keep their youth and beauty. Even kill. Maya wants no part in this sinister adventure. She would much rather be shopping for shoes, munching brownies and shedding her geeky image. But the teenager soon finds that she doesn’t have a choice. Only Maya can see the Shadows for what they really are. Only she can unravel the trail of clues laid long ago by a dead priest. This is why both the forces of good and evil need her so badly. Unsure about whom she can trust and believe, Maya launches into a clue hunt across Mumbai – and in the process, learns about love, friendship and growing up.

The Mountain of Light  by  Indu Sundaresan 

Battle For Bittora by  Anuja Chauhan 

Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree life. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni’s ‘duty’ to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Jinni swears she won’t but she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn’t fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan – an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history.

A Feast Of Roses by  Indu Sundaresan

In this lush and romantic sequel to The Twentieth Wife , Mehrunnisa, the first woman Jahangir marries for love, is now Empress Nur Jahan. As a mark of his love, he transfers his powers of sovereignty to her. This is the story of the strength of character and cunning one woman has to demonstrate to get what she wants, sometimes at great personal cost, even almost losing her daughter’s love. But she never loses the love of the man who bestows this power upon her: Emperor Jahangir.

Shadow Princess by  Indu Sundaresan 

The Mughal Empire is crumbling. With the death of his beloved queen Mumtaz, Emperor Shah Jahan slowly loses interest in everything, while his sons conspire and scheme to gain control of the empire. Princess Jahanara is only seventeen when the weight of the imperial zenana is thrust upon her. Shah Jahan’s favorite daughter is the most important woman in the harem and is forced to remain at the Mughal court all her life, caught up in the intrigues and power politics of her siblings, sacrificing her own desires for the sake of her father.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by   Balli Kaur Jaswal 

Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick! Balli Kaur Jaswal’s sexy, lively book is a thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages—a spicy and alluring mix of  Together Tea  and  Calendar Girls.

The Glass Palace by  Amitav Ghosh 

The Hungry Tide by  Amitav Ghosh 

From the author of The Glass Palace and Jungle Nama , the widely-acclaimed bestseller. The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Cut Like Wound by  Anita Nair

Chain of Custody by  Anita Nair

Alphabet Soup for Lovers by  Anita Nair 

Idris: Keeper of the Light by  Anita Nair

The year is 1659. Idris, a Somalian trader, is in Kerala to attend the Mamangam festivities. By a strange twist of fate, he meets his nine-year-old son whose existence he had been unaware of. In an attempt to keep his son close to him, Idris embarks with him on a voyage that ends in the diamond mines of Golconda. Packed with passion, adventure, and fascinating aspects of life in the seventeenth century in southern India, Idris is a page-turner that will intrigue and excite readers everywhere.

The Liberation of Sita by  Volga 

Valmiki’s Ramayana is the story of Rama’s exile and returns to Ayodhya, of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects. In Volga’s retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey towards self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty, and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it — Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila, and Ahalya — steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife.

Red Maize by  Danesh Rana

The Golden Pigeon by  Shahid Siddiqui 

The Sibius Knot by  Amrita Tripathi 

The Second Coming by  Shubha Menon 

Mad Girl’s Love Song by   Rukumini Bhaya Nair

The Namesake by  Jhumpa Lahiri 

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 

A couple exchange unprecedented confessions during nightly blackouts in their Boston apartment as they struggle to cope with a heartbreaking loss; a student arrives in new lodgings in a mystifying new land and, while he awaits the arrival of his arranged marriage wife from Bengal, he finds his first bearings with the aid of the curious evening rituals that his centenarian landlady orchestrates; a schoolboy looks on while his childminder finds that the smallest dislocation can unbalance her new American life all too easily and send her spiraling into nostalgia for her homeland…

Anita and Me by  Meera Syal 

It’s 1972. Meena is nine years old and lives in the village of Tollington, ‘the jewel of the Black Country’. She is the daughter of Indian parents who have come to England to give her a better life. As one of the few Punjabi inhabitants of her village, her daily struggle for independence is different from most. She wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang.

Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future, threaten to turn Anita’s salad days sour.

The Wounds of the Dead by  Vikram Paralkar 

A surgeon working in a dilapidated clinic in the hinterland is visited in the dead of night by a family – a man, his pregnant wife and their eight-year-old son. Victims of a senseless attack, they reveal to the surgeon wounds that they could not possibly have survived. In a narrative that blends medicine and metaphysics, the surgeon is then issued a preposterous task: to mend the wounds of the dead before sunrise so that the family can return to life. But this is not the only challenge laid before him, and it is only as the night unfolds and morning dawns that the surgeon realizes just how intricately his future is tied to that of the dead.

Moustache by  S. Hareesh

No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories   by  Jayant Kaikini

One Point Two Billion by  Mahesh Rao

Ice Boys In Bell Bottoms by  Krishna Shastri Devulapalli 

A Southern Music by  T.M. Krishna

Farthest Field by  Raghu Karnad 

The photographs of three young men had stood in his grandmother’s house for as long as he could remember, beheld but never fully noticed. They had all fought in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India. One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront.

The Henna Artist by  Alka Joshi

Think Like a Monk by  Jay Shetty 

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk in the Vedic tradition to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Drawing on ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, “ Think Like a Monk ” reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us.

The lessons monks learn are profound but often abstract. Shetty transforms them into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve focus, improve relationships, identify our hidden abilities, increase self-discipline and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can – and should – think like a monk.

Things No One Else Can Teach Us by  Humble the Poet 

Hit Refresh: A Memoir by Microsoft’s CEO   by  Satya Nadella 

Unlearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life by  Humble the Poet 

Inferior by  Angela Saini 

From intelligence to emotion, for centuries science has told us that men and women are fundamentally different. But this is not the whole story.

Shedding light on controversial research and investigating the ferocious gender wars in biology, psychology and anthropology, Angela Saini takes readers on an eye-opening journey to uncover how women are being rediscovered. She explores what these revelations mean for us as individuals and as a society, revealing an alternative view of science in which women are included, rather than excluded.

Quantum Marketing by  Raja Rajamannar

There are no comments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Please enter an answer in digits: one × five =

Your favourite literary newsletter just got a makeover!

New Releases • Author Speak • Events & Festivals Recommendations • First Look • After School Tales Press Room • Pre Orders • Coming Soon • Special Offers Trending • Just In • Also Read • And much more...

Privacy Overview

25 Best Books Written by Indian Authors

Uncover India’s literary treasures with our curated list of the best books written by Indian authors. Explore diverse narratives and enrich your reading list!

India, a land as diverse as it is vast, boasts a literary heritage that stretches back millennia, approximately 3300 BCE, to be exact. Many languages, cultures, and traditions lie within its borders — all reflected in the country’s literature. Indian authors provide a unique perspective in the literary world, allowing readers around the world to learn about their culture and experiences. If you’re looking for gift ideas, read our guide with the best books to give to loved ones.

1. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

2. the god of small things by arundhati roy, 3. a suitable boy by vikram seth, 4. the white tiger by aravind adiga, 5. train to pakistan by khushwant singh, 6. the palace of illusions by chitra banerjee divakaruni, 7. swami and friends by r.k. narayan, 8. the namesake by jhumpa lahiri, 9. the shadow lines by amitav ghosh, 10. clear light of day by anita desai, 11. the guide by r.k. narayan, 12. interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri, 13. the great indian novel by shashi tharoor, 14. em and the big hoom by jerry pinto, 15. the immortals by amit chaudhuri, 16. fasting, feasting by anita desai, 17. the inheritance of loss by kiran desai, 18. the hungry tide by amitav ghosh, 19. sacred games by vikram chandra, 20. poonachi: or the story of a black goat by perumal murugan, 21. english, august by upamanyu chatterjee, 22. the far field by madhuri vijay, 23. serious men by manu joseph, 24. the death of vishnu by manil suri, 25. a fine balance by rohinton mistry, how do indian authors distinguish themselves in the global literary landscape, are there common themes or narratives that are often explored by indian authors in their works.

Midnight’s Children takes readers back to the midnight of August 15, 1947, when India took its independence from the British Empire. The novel then follows a pair of children switched at birth in Bombay.

Saleem Sinai, the narrator, has been constantly pressured by expectations since birth. One day, as his mother punishes him, he discovers he has the power of telepathy. Throughout the novel, readers realize that the 1,000 babies (now only 581) born at the first hour of India’s independence have magical abilities.

Through this main plot, Salman Rushdie delves into themes of identity influenced by Indian mentality, politics, and human relations. Sprinkled over the 600-page work are elements of magical realism excellently meshed with the Indian-British’s wit and humor. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.” Salman Rushdie , Midnight’s Children

The God of Small Things is a modern classic that is fascinating and heart-breaking. The story’s central plot revolves around the fraternal twins, Estha and Rahel, and their experiences since childhood and as adults. The book contains usually frowned-upon themes, but they play important parts in making the novel whole.

Many label Roy’s work as haunting but also clever. She skillfully interweaves family drama, forbidden affections, and political commentary. Roy has a way of creating characters with depth through her insight. She writes with intent and carefully creates the book’s atmosphere. In doing so, she doesn’t need to explain to the readers why a character behaves the way they do. Readers just understand.

Another unique aspect of Roy as a writer is her fondness for breaking rules in the English language. She capitalizes words, combines one or two words, and deliberately misspells. She does these to demonstrate a foreigner’s mind and way of thinking. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined.” Arundhati Roy , The God of Small Things

With almost 1,500 pages to go through, A Suitable Boy successfully paints a comprehensive view of family life and Indian heritage. The title refers to Lata’s search for a great match, highlighting arranged marriages as a central concern in Indian culture. Aside from these main themes, Seth presents vital but little-known events, like the Partition of India.

Seth’s narrative involves four families — those from the rich and powerful and those from the poor and lacking. He also describes court proceedings and politics in detail. All are to give the readers a complete survey of the characters’ motivations. Seth’s book is an excellent microcosm of life during the 50s. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person’s power. Be just to yourself.” Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy

The White Tiger follows the success story of Balram Halwai. He was once a poor villager, an ill-treated driver, and a wealthy entrepreneur. Readers can uncover his personal history via his letter to the Chinese leader Wen Jiabao, who was keen on learning Indian entrepreneurship.

Through his service to a rich family, Balram becomes educated. Driving the landlord, the landlord’s son who came from New York, and others made it easy to listen and learn. His studying took him to New Delhi, and the events that followed made him realize the realities of the system.

Through this debut novel, Adiga showcases the dire circumstances of various social statuses in India. He demonstrates the poor conditions of those in the streets. But he also tackles the crimes and willingness of those in power to sacrifice their kin. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Iqbal, that great poet, was so right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave.” Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

Train to Pakistan takes the results of the 1947 Partition of India from mere statistics to harrowing realism. It depicts the British leaving a broken country behind, with religion further dividing the people. Singh shows the gap between Hindus and Muslims by centering the plot around the small village of Mano Majra.

The central theme revolves around the two groups living in harmony within the village. Through it, Singh presents that unity despite varying religious beliefs is possible. However, he also demonstrates how religion persuades people to do things — good and bad. Aside from the macrocosm of the events unfolding in the novel, it also tells of a love story between a Sikh man and a Muslim woman.

Singh skillfully captures the brutality of the Partition of India in Train to Pakistan . All within a veil of soothing writing. This choice of style makes the book easier to read and digest. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians — or the Pakistanis.” Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan

Go on a journey with the heroine of the Mahabharata in The Palace of Illusions. It’s a novel of myth, magic, and history interconnected to retell an epic tale. Above all, it unveils women’s struggles seen through the perspective of one of the most famous women in Indian ancient texts.

Readers can rediscover the characters’ strengths and weaknesses in this epic version. Draupadi (also called Panchaali, Krishna, and Yagyaseni) is not just a helpless female in this novel. She’s a strong woman who endures hardships and helps her husbands get their kingdoms.

Divakaruni introduces new angles and vital points in the story. For instance, Draupadi’s disrobing that made the war inevitable is justified and given more weight. At the same time, the story also chastises the main lead’s choices and shows the effects of her mistakes. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path — all they do is trip you up.” Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , The Palace of Illusions

Any 20th-century child will see themselves in the characters of Swami and Friends. This novel may seem simple and comedic. But in reality, it showcases R.K. Narayan’s genius in entering a child’s mind and reliving his experiences with the readers. It’s a fascinating throwback to one’s early years, where innocence is at its peak.

Swami and Friends, only one part of the A Malgudi Omnibus collection, is undeniably one of the children’s adventure classics in Indian literature. Readers can relate to the ten-year-old boy, Swami, as his relationship with others deepens. It talks of his friends, grandmother, parents, and new-born brother. This book is an intimate and thorough tale of childhood, family, and growth. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Life is about making the right things and going on.” R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends

Since an Indian immigrant family’s story is told in The Namesake, many in the same boat will relate to the novel. Jhumpa Lahiri’s emotionally charged writing makes the novel a must-read. It’s about parents integrating their Indian heritage from Calcutta into their life in New York.

Simultaneously, it’s also their children’s struggles with their identities. Lahiri’s writing shines through the firstborn son’s perspective, who hates the name given to him. Readers join in as Gogol rebels against his family’s values and lifestyle, even wanting to change his name. He does so because he needs to learn the meaning and symbolism of the name his father picked. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“She has the gift of accepting her life; as he comes to know her, he realizes that she has never wished she were anyone other than herself, raised in any other place, in any other way.” Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

Travel with a boy who traverses between the intricate web of dreams and memories in The Shadow Lines. It’s a fiction book that excellently blends magic, Indian history, and youthful innocence. Like other works depicted in Indian books, Ghosh also mentions Partition literature, the Swadeshi movement, and World War II but deftly narrates them in a more interesting way. It also discusses the Dhaka and Calcutta Riots.

The Shadow Lines presents an almost omniscient, unnamed narrator and assists readers in being more critical of what philosophical themes mean. This includes unity, boundaries, and alienation. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Need is not transitive; one may need without oneself being needed.” Amitav Ghosh , The Shadow Lines

Clear Light of Day focuses on a family and the post-partition’s influence on each member. The story starts with the sisters and brothers as adults and continues as they recount their lives. This recounting opens up an avenue for them to analyze their domestic lives and relationships. It’s also a way to reflect on how India transformed over the years.

Desai focuses on one family’s struggles and how their lives play out alongside one of the most tumultuous parts of Indian history. In doing so, Desai successfully portrays the characters’ maturity and their country moving on from its past. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“That was the way life was: it lay so quiet, so still that you put your fingers out to touch it, to stroke it. Then it leapt up and struck you full in the face so that you spun about and spun about, gasping. The flames leapt up all around, rising by inches every minute, rising in rings.” Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day

The Guide tells the story of Raju. He’s a simple expediter, turned to Malgudi’s spiritual guide and, finally, one of India’s holy men. The book is about a man’s journey to being a guru. All told in a non-linear narrative that makes the themes easier to digest.

Passion, tradition, and piety are only some of the issues Narayan tackles via The Guide. Raju, as a character, is carefully crafted, with likable but also despicable characters, making him a realistic, relatable character. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“We always question the bonafide of the man who tells us unpleasant facts.” R.K. Narayan, The Guide

Nine short stories compose the Interpreter of Maladies. These stories are of Indian and Indian Americans who integrate their past and current lives. Gradually, these tales uncover the reality behind every character’s expectations versus what life offers them in a foreign land.

This award-winning work untangles the difficulties of clashing cultures and life adjustments. It’s one of the best Indian culture presentations on paper, with authentic interpersonal themes shared through moving narratives. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

In The Great Indian Novel, Shashi Tharoor retells The Mahabharata through a modern political stance. He creates a thought-provoking and funny book by using the ancient poem’s characters and putting them in modern India. Additionally, the author digs into the epic’s influences and other impacts of colonial rules over India’s freedom.

Expect to read about Nehru, Gandhi, and many more through the eighteen books in the novel. Tharoor weaves an intricate plot. But even if you’re unfamiliar with Indian history or epics, the plot will still be easy to follow. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“The past is not necessarily a guide to the future, but it does partly help explain the present.” Shashi Tharoor , The Great Indian Novel 

Em and the Big Hoom refers to the narrator’s parents — Imelda and Augustine. Readers are offered the young storyteller’s perspective. Through the kid’s eyes, readers are introduced to his family life, which is both comedic and filled with sorrow.

It’s a story of a mother and the family that loves her. She’s the perfect woman, aside from her bipolar disorder. The book is touching on how mental illness affects a family and children. Jerry Pinto chose to tackle mental health issues in his debut novel. Though discussing mental illnesses is never an easy task, he presents it sincerely and bitingly humorously. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“I am no I. I am now part of a we.” Jerry Pinto , Em and the Big Hoom

The Immortals is the story of the relationship between an affluent voice teacher and a student. In a deeper sense, it’s about the peculiarities between India’s upper and lower classes. Moreover, it’s a tale criticizing perceptions and ideals.

Chaudhuri’s writing paints a vivid description of India forty years ago. He describes sights, sounds, and even scents so that readers feel they are within the book’s pages. Readers who are not familiar with native words will do well to have a glossary for a more immersive reading. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“She knew, with an uncomplicated honesty, what her worth was; to what extent would she compromise or to which level stoop if others pretended not to.” Amit Chaudhuri , The Immortals

Anita Desai takes Indian family dynamics to the forefront in Fasting, Feasting. An “unmarriageable” daughter, a pressured son, and rigid parents — the book reflects many Indian households then and today.

Aside from the conflict between the new and old generations, the author inspects how immigrant children assimilate to a new land. Desai combines elements of bleak humor and tragedy in her narrative. This skillful writing style makes readers feel like they are part of the suburban family tied to their beliefs. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” Anita Desai, Fasting, Feasting

The Inheritance of Loss intermingles the lives of people who participate and want to get out of India’s caste system. It has four main characters. First, Jemu, a retired judge who studied in London and now lives in the Himalayas. Then, his orphaned granddaughter Sai.

Readers become aware of the character’s struggles through a third-person omniscient point-of-view. These difficulties are products of globalization and loss of identity. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Sadness was so claustrophobic.” Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

The Hungry Tide is an unlikely tale of nature and humanity. Readers are introduced to two main characters, one an Indian American researcher leaning more to her American descent, and another an Indian fisherman who saved her. Other characters are used, but the central theme remains true: man and nature can coexist, but at what cost?

Ghosh is known for his in-depth sense of socio-political matters. Through lyrical writing, he lures readers in and poses questions about altruism, economy, and religion. Readers can expect well-paced scenes that culminate into an impactful climax. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Need is not transitive; one may need without oneself being needed.” Amitav Ghosh , The Hungry Tide

Tagged as a thriller mystery novel, the Sacred Games takes readers on an adventure of Mumbai’s underworld criminals and a Sikh police officer’s hunt. Here, the author successfully depicts the chaos and violence of 21st-century India.

Using his many inspirations, including 19th-century classics and Bollywood cinema, Chandra illustrates India’s dark world with ease and urgency. This 900-page novel creates a complete saga that uses real-world Indian texts and explains Indian culture. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“The truth is that human beings like to be ruled. They will talk and talk about freedom, but they are afraid of it.” Vikram Chandra , Sacred Games

Murugan offers a modern fable through Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat. Though the protagonist is an animal, the author presents an exhaustive characterization of Poonachi so readers can easily connect with her. Interested in this topic? Check out our round-up of best 21st-century authors !

Though the novel deceptively looks like a children’s book, it’s meant for adults. It addresses universal themes of being human and living. Some aggressive topics Murugan discusses via Poonachi are government injustice, social hierarchy, and racial discrimination. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“They talk about the highs of toddy and liquor, but those are not highs at all. Real intoxication comes from talking. The moment it crosses a limit, we forget everything.” Perumal Murugan , Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat

English, August revolves around a city boy’s self-discovery in the province. Despite seemingly having it all, he begins questioning his life purpose. As Upamanyu Chatterjee is fond of using morally gray characters, the protagonist’s dark side is shown to the readers. Agastya, or August, does bad things, making him listless and depressed. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Only when you die will you cease to feel ridiculous.” Upamanyu Chatterjee, English, August

The Far Field is akin to a confession and recollection. Throughout the novel, Shalini is searching for a part of her past to make sense of the crossroads she found herself in at 30. Vijay uses detailed descriptions and varied emotions from the book’s pages to the readers. Through this type of writing, she offers the readers an interesting and well-thought-out narrative. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“I don’t know when my allegiance shifted, when I went from being his to being hers.” Madhuri Vijay , The Far Field

Get fascinated with unusual but amusing characters in Serious Men. Through carefully crafted narratives and an intricate plot, the journalist Manu Joseph manages to portray poverty in urban India in a satirical and relaxing novel.

Readers are taken to an adventure of how the poor Ayyan ends up in a beachside village. Despite being a funny and enjoyable book, Joseph points out power, caste, and political issues. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“But then the fate of shy people is that all of their fears usually come true.” Manu Joseph , Serious Men

A man dying in an apartment complex — that’s the whole premise of The Death of Vishnu. Although the plot is straightforward, Manil Suri’s debut novel also untangles serious issues that divide modern India.

The novel starts with Vishnu’s dying on the apartment staircase, but Suri also presents the other resident’s backstory. He also loads the novel with Hindu myths and thus uses the building as a unique metaphor for India’s religion and social class. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Endings need to be lived, they cannot be ordained.” Manil Suri , The Death of Vishnu

Greed, ignorance, and heroism are the main driving forces of the plot in A Fine Balance. Amidst the unrest in the 1970s, four people became roommates and close friends. Through their time together, readers are thrown in the middle of oppressed Indian citizens, where violence and poverty are normal.

Rohinton Mistry has the gift of drawing the harsh realities of the time. He also has a mesmerizing way of depicting authentic characters that make the readers root for them. Read it on Amazon; click here .

“Distance was a dangerous thing, she knew. Distance changed people.” Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

FAQs About Best Books Written by Indian Authors

Indian writers are well-known for their rich cultural and thematic mastery. They bring a unique blend of traditions, languages, and perspectives to their storytelling, offering fresh insights into various narratives. Many Indian authors excel in vividly depicting the complexities of Indian society, exploring themes like family, identity, and social change.

Indian writers frequently explore family dynamics, the clash of tradition and modernity, identity and self-discovery, and societal issues like caste and gender. Many Indian authors draw inspiration from Indian mythology, history, and cultural traditions, too. Themes of diaspora and the immigrant experience are also prevalent, reflecting the global Indian diaspora.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

View all posts

Welcome to Indian Book Critics – Home for Book Lovers!

On our website, you can enjoy reading the latest book reviews of Indian fiction, non-fiction and even academic books. Doing book review is a passion for everyone in our writing team. And that’s why, you will find a balance in our opinions, reviews or feature articles that we do almost every day. We are admirers of literature, lovers of written art and greedy for books… more and more books… this is what we need. Enjoy the filtered book reviews below. Click READ ALL POSTS to read all the articles written by us on the blog page.

Read Book Reviews – Across Genres

Batchmates Trust and Betrayal by Niladri Sircar, Book Review

Same as Ever: Timeless Lessons on Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life by Morgan Housel, a book review

Intimate Leadership by Jayaram Rajaram Book Review

Read Interviews, Opinions & Book Recommendations

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, sailing the literary ocean – a critical evaluation (and the flaws) of the novel

Roasting Chetan Bhagat – the literary genius young India should avoid!

10 Books (by foreign authors) to Read in the Beginning of the Year 2024 – an Internet List

Read all posts.

• CURRENT ISSUE
• PUBLICATIONS

Early Indian texts, especially those that are part of the vast corpus in Sanskrit, have acquired a sadly paradoxical status in recent years. On the one hand, many serious scholars tend to view them with suspicion, if not contempt.

Minority Pasts investigates local history and politics of Rampur, the last Muslim-ruled Princely State in colonial United Provinces, and studies with remarkable ease and competence aspects of political, economic, socio-cultural and affective history of Rampur and the Rampuris in the South Asian subcontinent across borders in the post-1857 period.

It is usually overlooked while talking about India of the latter half of the eighteenth century that the Mughal court continued to have some political relevance till at least the turn of the century.

This volume is a reflection upon the idea of a democratic, secular and inclusive India which KR Narayanan cherished. His rise as a Dalit boy from Travancore to India’s presidency embodied these values.

Divided into seven different sections that are modelled on a cookbook, Patel begins the first section by unpacking the nuts and bolts of the state, highlighting the remnants of the colonial past that continue to haunt the present. A major section of the book is about foregrounding the contradictions entailed in the Constitution and the actual workings in the everyday.

The book’s four chapters examine four widely held social media theories in detail. Terms such as ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Population Jihad’, ‘Forced Conversions’ and ‘Muslim Appeasement’ have made their way into our everyday conversations. This book forces us to look closely at these words that have infiltrated our quotidian conversations and pushes us into asking the right questions.

For the last decade or so, 21st century India has been a confusing place. We are bombarded with triumphant messages of India’s rise as an economic superpower while simultaneously feeling the crunch of rising costs and diminishing earning capacities.

At first glance, it appears that the Punjab-Emilia Romagna migration corridor is a win-win proposition for the Italian dairy owners in dire need for workers in a rapidly aging population and the relatively low-skilled Punjabi emigrants to meet their economic and aspirational goals since the once-prosperous agricultural sector of Punjab has stagnated.

The anthology Concealing Caste: Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature with an extensive introduction by K Satyanarayana and Joel Lee is a treasure-trove of Dalit literature.

India is the land of paradoxes. As the British economist Joan Robinson famously quipped, ‘Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.’ This statement aptly captures the politics around the cow in India.

Harsh Mander, the author of this book, would be known to most readers of the The Book Review. He is a gadfly some might say, others might say the conscience of a nation that was India.

Translated together but individually by Shanta Gokhale and Jerry Pinto, this anthology of translations offers fifty-one of Tukaram’s abhangas with a playful open-endedness, giving its readers the option of seeing two different English versions of the same poem.

In the annals of literature, World War II continues to occupy a place of immense relevance—as one of the bloodiest periods in human history, which resulted in the genocide of millions.

Originally published as Rukogi Nahi, Radhika?in 1967, Usha Priyamvada’s slim novel is translated by the Booker Award-winning translator

Caught in an unfamiliar area, the elephant is attacked and killed by a pack of wild dogs. As the terror-stricken boy witnesses the silent death and devouring of the giant animal, something inside him also dies.

The stories of miracle-working Sufi saints (pirs) have circulated in the Bangla-speaking world for most of the past millennium. They are romances filled with wondrous marvels, where tigers talk, rocks float and waters part, and faeries carry a sleeping Sufi holy man into the bedroom of a Hindu princess with whom the god of fate, Bidhata, has ordained his marriage.

A series of standalone stories featuring a precocious young boy from provincial Odisha, Pattanaik’s The Life and Times of Banka Harichandan delicately maps the contours of growing up. The bookis not children’s literature per se.

The book opens with the title story ‘Along with the Sun’ by SA Tamilselvan, the sad-yet-sweet story of Mari who dreams of marrying her uncle according to the custom of her caste.

Dom Moraes’ book, Where Some Things are Remembered, combines a reporter’s inner voice and a whole literary arsenal of epithets

The genre of crime writing, as readers are well aware, is a diverse one. The very fact of variety of (sub-)genres—in terms of, for instance, contexts, types/categories, sources and modes of investigation—makes crime writing a complex but highly exciting and vibrant literary field.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that challenges us to rethink our reading affiliations and affections and realign them to reflect the Protean hues of the real and imaginary worlds we inhabit. This delightful offering from Hachette

Here is a fascinating book on birds, trees and nature, written and illustrated by Bulbul Sharma, a well-known birdwatcher, illustrator and writer. She divides her book into the magic of four very distinct seasons of Delhi—Winter, Spring, Summer and Monsoon.

While most bardic poetry, K Kailasapathy’s preferred adage over court poetry, had its origins in traditions of oral storytelling, the corpus of Tamil Heroic Poetry, most of which is garnered from the extant works of the Sangam Age (the modern-day term for this body of literature)

I, Salma: Selected Poems jolts the readers into alertness about change and tension. Salma is the pen name of a well-known Tamil writer Rajathi Samsudeen.

Sometimes, we come across a voice that points out the obesity of our market-driven urges. That voice may call out across the street, on a public platform or through a book of poems and shake one out of the complacency of armchair righteousness.

The Sufi’s Nightingale by Sarbpreet Singh is beyond the mere retelling of the blessed bond between Shah Hussain and Madho Lal. It is a journey into the nooks and nuances of a sublime relationship between the murshid-mureed, as the re-defining of loss, longing and love in 16th century Lahore.

There is an early warning shouted out by Bhaiya: ‘Biji’s in the kitchen!’ While this warning is duly registered by Mama and Papa, Papa’s eyes turning ‘big and round as plates’, it is the protagonist, the granddaughter, who knows just what this means.

Despite its elementary level, this book satisfies a fundamental need of us emotion-feeling humans—the thirst to comprehend ourselves and our inner experiences. Oh, So Emo!delivers on this need with its engaging narrative and practical tools for emotional awareness.

• International
• Today’s Paper
• Premium Stories
• Express Shorts
• Health & Wellness
• Board Exam Results

International Booker Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Rupa Books: The wins and trials of a homegrown publisher Subscriber Only

‘Knife’: Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his stabbing to release on April 16

Maryse Condé, ‘Grande Dame of Caribbean Literature’, dies

What Amitava Kumar’s The Yellow Book tells about the mind of a writer Subscriber Only

Four new book releases that are a heady mix of truth and fiction Subscriber Only

Conservationist Romulus Whitaker’s latest book Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll lives up to the title Subscriber Only

Why is the Red Fort still popular? Subscriber Only

‘Took months to ask for ceasefire in Gaza’: Acclaimed writers withdraw from PEN America festival

Bureaucrat Amarjeet Sinha’s expert take on policy’s last-mile challenges Subscriber Only

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s memoir proves empathy must form the basis of policy solutions

‘The past can be a weapon for populist politicians’: Georgi Gospodinov Subscriber Only

24 writers receive Sahitya Akademi Award for 2023

‘Writing a memoir is a bit like playing God with your own life story’: Gurcharan Das

‘Diversity push by corporates just cosmetic, covers up reality’: Trans activist Santa Khurai

Lakshmi Puri’s debut novel is about the power of love – and India’s wisdom and eloquence Subscriber Only

In his latest, sociologist Sanjay Srivastava explores the Indian city as a masculine construct Subscriber Only

Sonora Jha’s The Laughter is a sharp takedown of the facade of liberal academic spaces Subscriber Only

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s latest novel departs from his humorous oeuvre, towards a search for a quieter world Subscriber Only

Bengali translation wins Romain Rolland Book Prize 2024

Being Hindu in Bangladesh: An Untold Story is disturbing but necessary

Huma Qureshi’s debut novel, Zeba: An Accidental Superhero has an unusual hijab-wearing heroine Subscriber Only

‘Tech is divorcing us from the best part of our minds’: Paul Lynch, 2023 Booker winner Subscriber Only

Chandan Gowda’s Another India: Events, Memory, People captures the many Indias within India Subscriber Only

JLF 2024: “Telugu literature is in the pits”: Gita Ramaswamy, publisher

• Elections 2024
• Political Pulse
• Entertainment
• Movie Review
• Newsletters
• Gold Rate Today
• Silver Rate Today
• Petrol Rate Today
• Diesel Rate Today
• Web Stories

Welcome to the website of book lovers, book readers and book critics – we are the team of The Last Critic! You will find many amazing things to read on our website. We regularly post book reviews, literary articles, author interviews, author introductions and general opinions on literary updates. We are certainly one of the emerging book review websites in India but we aspire to be different.

We are here to try our best to bring the value judgement, worthy criticism and the best possible way of reviewing a piece of written literature at the fore of our literary horizon. Our critics will read the books by Indian authors and novelists, poets, and scholars. We will also bring the book reviews of international books alongside the book reviews of books by Indian authors. The Last Critic team will ensure that once you read any of our reviews, you do come back to check our reviews again and again – and we promise to offer you fresh and quality literary content every time you visit this website.

Enjoy your reads! You can find below many sections of reviews. Go ahead and explore or just visit our blog page to read all our posts – Latest Book Reviews

You can also find some of the book reviews below, on this page. Our readers are constantly working on bringing the best of our writings to you. We are working to become one of the leading online destinations for literature lovers and book lovers in India. And thus, all our efforts will be in the direction of becoming one of the leading book review websites in India. 

Intimate Leadership by Jayaram Rajaram, a book review

While much can be said about this book, and many readers have said so much on different book websites, I will try to keep things simple, straightforward and uncluttered as the book itself is. First of all, let’s know the…

Must Read Books on Indology, a list every lover of the subject should read

First, those new to the subject should know what we are discussing. What is Indology and why is it important? Academic and political definitions may be anything, let us focus on what is the most convenient and simple way to…

T S Eliot – in the frenzy and dismay of life’s ailments!

Whatever T. S. Eliot might have been throughout his life, many believe he was an ardent pessimist at the beginning of his career. Let’s examine this argument… with both sides on the table so that we don’t miss any important…

Chetan Bhagat and his impact on Indian English literature – tracing the positives and the drawbacks with the best way forward

Anyone who claims to indulge in reading Indian English literature must have heard about Chetan Bhagat. The phenomena that annunciated the revolution in Indian English fiction – making it accessible, simple, friendly and ‘consumable’. Before Bhagat, one might say, common…

Dr Haseena Chokkiyil – author of The Kintsugi Moms, an introduction

Dr Haseena Chokkiyil, before anything else, poses herself as a mother and that helps all those who come to her for advice, suggestions and counselling (mostly women). And from those sessions, interactions and conversations on a wide range of issues…

Melodies of Society by Arav Rajesh – Book Review

I must admit right at the beginning that reading a quality poetry collection by a relatively young author does delight me more than anything else! Being an ardent reader of Indian English poetry for more than a decade (academic and…

• India Today
• Business Today
• Reader’s Digest
• Harper's Bazaar
• Brides Today
• Cosmopolitan
• Aaj Tak Campus
• India Today Hindi

Ashley Tellis' book Striking Asymmetries | South Asia's new nuke symmetry

After China, Pakistan is the second most capable nuclear power in South Asia, pushing India to third place

Review of S.K. Lambah's book In Pursuit Of Peace | A life in diplomacy

S.K. Lambah’s reflections on the challenges in India-Pakistan diplomacy remain clear-sighted

In Hard Times takes a long, hard look at India's security concerns

'In Hard Times', edited by Manoj Joshi, Praveen Swami, and Nishtha Gautam, offers an insight into national security and shows why an upgrade of the defence forces is crying need of the hour and how it can be achieved.  

Book excerpt: Against the grain

A new book on Veer Savarkar reflects on the revolutionary's idea of a Hindu nation and his attempts to prevent Partition. An excerpt

How China Sees India And The World by Shyam Saran | The view from the Middle Kingdom

On whether the Chinese system will lead to an Asian and global order marked by Chinese hegemony, Saran is sceptical

Book review of Arun Shourie's The Commissioner For Lost Causes | A maverick's tale

Shourie describes at copious length how he demolished newsroom hierarchies, backing rookie reporters and outstation correspondents to zealously pursue stories and sustain lengthy follow-ups in courts.

BJP: The New Political Machine

Two books charting the BJP's journey to the top highlight how the saffron party has reshaped itself into a formidable political machine

Book extract: Unfinished business

A new book on India's quest to dominate world cricket suggests that coach Ravi Shastri may be the X-factor in the national side's recent—and future—success. Excerpts

A high risk game

The former RBI governor’s new book sidesteps the political quarrels of his tenure to focus on the drama of monetary policy. Exclusive excerpts

A Bitter Rivalry

How the poster girls of Indian badminton, P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, fought for the attention of their beloved coach and mentor Pullela Gopichand. Exclusive extracts from a new book that looks at the back stories of these two great athletes-and at India's prospects going into the Tokyo Olympic Games later this year. Has the early promise of Beijing 2008, the breakthroughs at London 2012, the humiliation of Rio 2016, and the soul-searching that followed in its aftermath, given India the wherewithal to break into the big league?

How Menon's downfall began

Menon is best remembered today as the Defence Minister who lost the 1962 India-China war.

Pulwama will not be the only issue in Lok Sabha elections: Chidambaram at India Today Conclave 2019

In India Today Conclave 2019, Chidambaram took questions from a panel comprising Development Economist Jayati Ghosh, Food & Farm Expert Devinder Sharma, Sajjid Chinoy (JP Mogan), Mahesh Vyas (CEO, CMIE), Pronab Sen (Former Chief Statistician) and R Jagannathan (Swarajya).

Priyanka flies to Jaipur to be with Robert Vadra ahead of ED questioning

Priyanka Gandhi was to address the party workers at the Congress's Mall Avenue office after Rahul Gandhi but she chose not to.

Prashant Kishor gives thumbs down to Priyanka Gandhi, says she cannot change Congress fortunes in 2 months

Janata Dal (United) vice-president and ace poll strategist Prashant Kishor was speaking with the media in Patna.

10 trains affected as Gujjar quota agitation enters Day 3

Several trains were cancelled, others were diverted as train services in Sawai Madhopur-Bayana section were affected on third day of Gujjar agitation for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.

14-year-old boy stabbed to death by three juveniles over friendship with girl

The accused were angry as the boy spoke with the girlfriend of one of them.

Yuvraj Singh reveals why MS Dhoni is crucial to India at 2019 World Cup

2019 Cricket World Cup: India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh said he is happy to see MS Dhoni striking the ball as well as he used during his heyday.

Busting black money: Taxman targets huge deposits in banks during note ban period

Cases of large amounts in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes deposited in bank accounts are under scrutiny.

Not happening: BJP won't rule Kerala, feels party's only MLA from the state

He made the remark inside Kerala Legislative Assembly.

Shilpa Shinde gets trolled for joining politics. Twitterati say galat pakde hain

Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai actress Shilpa Shinde joined Congress today. The actress might contest Lok Sabha Elections this year but her fans are not happy.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘She was like an auntie to me’: Lynne Reid Banks remembered by Michael Morpurgo

The astonishing breadth of her writing was a great inspiration – as was she, in her passionate advocacy for children’s books

Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, dies aged 94

I t is quite rare to find a writer like Lynne Reid Banks, who tries so many different subjects, and so many different ways of writing. The author of The L-Shaped Room and The Indian in the Cupboard, who died on Thursday aged 94, was a writer I admired and liked a lot – and someone who helped me find a pathway for myself.

I have a huge admiration for the breadth of her writing. Her first novel was for adults, The L-Shaped Room. It was a great hit, and was adapted into a film. Where do you go after that? And the answer was, she didn’t follow the commerce, she didn’t go to Hollywood or spend time just writing film scripts. She went on writing what she cared about.

Then – thank goodness – she turned to writing children’s books, and again, rather quickly became immensely successful with The Indian in the Cupboard. Lynne Reid Banks wrote 48 books, but it isn’t about the numbers, it’s about the fact that she wrote books that are going to be read again and again and again. It’s about the fact she had an individual voice and she tried things out, she experimented. And it’s about the fact that she knew that, as writers for children, we have to pass on the things we’re passionate about.

Lynne took on subjects that others didn’t think you ought to include in children’s books – she knew that if you write about these things in the right way with the right voice and you don’t traumatise, then that is what literature should be for young people. My favourite of her books, and the first I read, is The Indian in the Cupboard. The depth and complexity of it is quite extraordinary. It is one of those books that crosses that ridiculous divide made between adults and children. The notion that somehow you stop being one and then become the other is nonsense, and she knew that.

Her writing displayed her extraordinary spirit – a spirit I have tried to imitate in my own work. She wrote about what she wanted to in the way that she wanted to do it, and didn’t follow trends. She was was a wonderful off-piste writer, and a wonderful off-piste person as well. She broke the glass ceiling in all sorts of different ways: before I knew her, she was one of the first female news reporters on British television.

I knew her for about 40 years off and on, and “warm” is the first word that comes to mind when I think of her. She was wholehearted in her appreciation of others, and extremely passionate about children’s art and children’s literature.

We coincided in so many ways. She and I both felt passionately against the way the national curriculum seems to be all about testing and outcomes. If you wish to encourage children to read or paint or do drama, you have to leave room in the day for that, and room in the lives of children to express the creative side of themselves. Lynne knew that instinctively, and I think that may well have been thanks to the time she spent living and teaching on a kibbutz in Israel. She was working out in the open with children, where they were close to nature, growing their sense of the planet around them and their belonging to that planet.

after newsletter promotion

Her work there was not dissimilar to the work I do with my charity Farms for City Children, through which we give classes of children the chance to spend time on one of our farms, working with them out on the land, digging with them in the vegetable garden and helping them to lamb sheep. Lynne and I had a very close connection about the importance of the land – she felt instinctively that being in nature was something that was very good for children’s welfare and wellbeing. She was talking about that a long time before other people.

Fourteen years my senior, to some extent she was like an auntie to me: very encouraging, never critical. We wouldn’t see each other for five or six years, and then she’d ring up out of the blue, about something I’d said. She gave me good advice, and I always felt that she was encouraging me a little further down some route. If I was being a bit belligerent about the way children are being taught in school, she was encouraging me to do more. I felt like I was a sort of clockwork friend of hers: when we got together, she would wind me up a bit to keep me going.

There won’t be another person who has had the extraordinary life that she had. I shall miss her a lot.

As told to Lucy Knight

• Michael Morpurgo
• Children and teenagers

More on this story

Lynne Reid Banks obituary

Lynne Reid Banks: raising a family on a kibbutz was everything my mother detested

It’s great being old. I can be eccentric, self-indulgent – even offensive

Lynne Reid Banks' Tiger, Tiger: Too brutal for a seven-year-old?

The indian in the cupboard by lynne reid banks - review, 1000 novels everyone must read: family & self (part one), comments (…), most viewed.

Lynne Reid Banks, author of ‘The Indian in the Cupboard,’ dies at 94

Her works ranged from the feminist novel “the l-shaped room” to the “indian in the cupboard” children’s book series.

Lynne Reid Banks, a British writer whose best-selling, sometimes contested works ranged from the feminist novel “The L-Shaped Room” to “The Indian in the Cupboard” and its sequels, a chapter-book series about a boy and his animated plastic figurine that was read by millions of children on both sides of the Atlantic, died April 4 in Surrey, England. She was 94.

The cause was breast cancer, said Omri Stephenson, her youngest son, for whom the protagonist in “The Indian in the Cupboard” was named.

Ms. Banks, a onetime actress and television reporter, made her literary debut in 1960 with “The L-Shaped Room,” a novel about a young, unmarried woman who goes to live during her pregnancy in a boardinghouse room of the shape described in the title.

The book became a 1962 British film starring Leslie Caron in a rare dramatic role for the French-born actress-dancer and thrust Ms. Banks to fame. She went on to write what she described as “book after non-best-selling book” until she “stumbled upon the idea,” as she put it , “of bringing a toy plastic American Indian to life in a magic cupboard.”

“The Indian in the Cupboard” appeared in 1980 and was followed by four sequels, “The Return of the Indian” (1986), “The Secret of the Indian” (1989), “The Mystery of the Cupboard” (1993) and “The Key to the Indian” (1998).

For years those volumes were staples of library shelves, recounting to young readers the adventures of Omri and Little Bear, the first of many figurines that come alive when Omri places them in his cupboard and turns an ornate key.

In 1995, “The Indian in the Cupboard” was adapted into a film directed by Frank Oz. A review by New York Times film critic Janet Maslin captured what admirers saw as the magic at the core of the story:

“As ‘E.T.’ did,” she wrote, referring to the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie about a boy and his extraterrestrial friend, “‘The Indian in the Cupboard’ imagines what it would be like to have a wondrous hidden companion, the kind that stays in a boy’s room all day while the boy goes to school.”

However, critics objected over the years to what they regarded as Ms. Banks’s reliance on racial and cultural stereotypes, in particular in her representation of Native Americans. The American Indian Library Association included “The Indian in the Cupboard” on a list of “titles to avoid.”

Writing in The Washington Post in 1986, Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa who would later receive a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, described Little Bear as “a ruthlessly unpleasant and unoriginal man, an itty-bitty savage who speaks B-movie English and has none of the tenderness, wit or even intelligence which normal humans, including American Indians, might be expected to possess.”

Furthermore, Erdrich continued, the main character’s control over Little Bear carried a “depressing implicit message.”

“American Indians, a child may gather, can be ‘brought to life’ when it suits the convenience of those in power, and turned back into plastic when they become too real,” Erdrich wrote. “Banks’ books can, in fact, be read almost as Orwellian allegories of childish imperialism.”

In the course of the series, Little Bear tells Omri that he wishes to be called a “Native American” rather than a “Red Indian.” Ms. Banks vigorously objected to suggestions that her books should carry a warning label but remarked to the London Independent in 1995 that she “probably wouldn’t have written that book the way I wrote it, now.”

Belinda Reid Banks, an only child, was born in London on July 31, 1929. Her father, of Scottish heritage, was a doctor, and her mother, whose family was Irish, was an actress.

Ms. Banks started her education at a Catholic boarding school before being evacuated with her mother to Saskatoon, a city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, to avoid bombings of London during World War II. Her father, as a physician, remained behind.

In Canada, Ms. Banks said, she was entranced by the idea of the Wild West, which mixed in her imagination with stories her mother had told her — the foundation, perhaps, of Ms. Banks’s later books for children.

“I was brought up to think we really shared the world with … fairies and elves and so on — that they were all around us,” she told the Times in 1993. “Fairy tales were my young mythology, and the pioneer West was my teenage mythology.”

After five years in Canada, Ms. Banks returned to England, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She initially followed her mother into a stage career but was forced to change course when her father died suddenly.

In search of more reliable income, she became a reporter for the television outlet that is now ITV. She was one of few women on the British airwaves at the time, and, annoyed by the tedium of the inconsequential assignments allowed to her, began writing “The L-Shaped Room” during her spare time.

Years later, she expressed regret about the way she had depicted a Black character who lives at the boardinghouse with the protagonist. “There are certain aspects of the book now, in my treatment of him, that embarrass me,” Ms. Banks told an interviewer .

Nevertheless, the book was regarded as an important contribution to feminist literature of the era and kick-started Ms. Banks’s career, even if it at times brought her impertinent questions.

“Everyone assumed that I’d had a baby, even people who’d known me for years. I was getting strange letters, like, ‘My dear, you have got us all guessing …’” she told the Independent. “My mother begged me not to publish under my own name. Everybody thought it was me and everybody still does. It was all pure imagination.”

In the early 1960s, Ms. Banks met her future husband, Chaim Stephenson, an English sculptor who at the time was living in Israel. She accompanied him back to Israel and lived for nearly nine years on a kibbutz, teaching English as another language, before they returned in 1971 to England, where she pursued her literary career in earnest.

Ms. Banks wrote plays, short stories and articles in addition to her books, a number of which centered on Israel and the Middle East. She also wrote two books about the writers Charlotte and Emily Brontë, “Dark Quartet: The Story of the Brontës” (1976) and “Path to the Silent Country: Charlotte Brontë’s Years of Fame” (1977).

The first of her dozens of books for children was “The Adventures of King Midas,” published in 1976.

Ms. Banks’s husband died in 2016 after 50 years of marriage. Her survivors include three sons, Adiel Stephenson of Budapest and Gillon Stephenson and Omri Stephenson, both of London; and several grandchildren. In “The Indian in the Cupboard,” the fictional Omri’s brothers are named Adiel and Gillon.

Omri Stephenson said in an interview that like his fictional namesake, he, too, played with plastic figurines when he was growing up. He also had a cupboard, a metal one that was perhaps less “romantic” than the one depicted in his mother’s books, but a place that nonetheless served as a hiding place for his treasures. Ms. Banks would sometimes carry it with her to book signings, to show her young readers where her ideas came from.

• Discussions
• Reading Challenge
• Kindle Notes & Highlights
• Favorite genres
• Friends’ recommendations
• Account settings

BOOK REVIEW OF INDIAN AUTHORS

Topics: all | new | unread discussion board, friends in this group, invite members (1532).

Bookshelf (showing 1-12 of 58)

tools & guidelines Moderator

Share This Group

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Ghostbusters plus post-colonial theory in the British Museum? Oh dear

Noah Angell’s new book argues that the objects in our flagship institution are coming alive – but behind the zany idea is a tired polemic

As if the British Museum didn’t have enough problems – the arguments raging over the restitution of everything from the Parthenon sculptures to the Benin bronzes; the scandal over artefacts being flogged on eBay; the ensuing admission that the Museum doesn’t always have good records of what it does possess – it now turns out that the artefacts themselves are haunted, and the ghosts are rebelling. 

Or so Noah Angell would have us believe. An American artist living in London, Angell spent much of the last decade collecting the accounts of British Museum workers – warders, visitor assistants, curators, store staff, mostly off the record and behind the backs of the museum’s management – of their many encounters with the restive entities that apparently inhabit the exhibits. 

For instance: an Aztec altarpiece locks in a BBC film crew and turns the room impossibly hot; a statue of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet provokes fights among visitors when the statue is moved; music is heard in the early hours coming from the fifth-century BC Nereid Monument, and bright orbs appear around it; mummies ripple their bandages when the cleaners dust their glass case; pebbles are thrown at hapless archivists; and many unhappy museum staff – suicides, accidental deaths – still hang around.

While it sounds like a zany enterprise, Angell is clearly serious about what he believes to be going on at Great Russell Street, which revolves around the Museum’s complicity in the iniquities of British imperialism and colonialism. It’s “a matter of consensus across culture,” Angell begins, “that hauntings arise from untended trauma, festering in its irresolution, and made worse by ongoing injustice… in the world of the living.” And the Museum is “one of the most visible outposts of what remains of the British Empire”, meaning it’s an “imperial-era detention centre still processing and imprisoning millions of ancient beings and lost gods who desperately want out”.

Such is Angell’s solemn commitment to decolonising museums – in the wake of scholarly polemics such as Dan Hicks’s The Brutish Museums – that the absurdity of having written Ghostbusters for postcolonialists seems to pass him by. But it’s worth dwelling on how we’ve managed to reach a point where spooky stories can be rehabilitated to serve in the culture wars over restitution and repatriation. After all, when Angell explains his view of the problem in “attempting to force a split between an object – a piece of material heritage – and its rightful place in the world”, and of how the Western museum does “the utmost to sever the spiritual underpinnings of these collections from their longstanding keepers”, he takes the argument for restitution far beyond rational political arguments about rightful property, or even the admission of responsibility for the acts of past generations (as evident in the growing clamour for historical reparations), into something akin to mysticism.  

Yet it’s mysticism with a purpose, since by an uncanny coincidence, the artefacts always seem to side with the politics of present-day activism. By Angell’s own account, the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo treasure and the many Roman and Greek artefacts – the largest part of the museum’s displays – don’t tend to rattle their chains much. Maybe they’re just happier being in a Western museum.

The notion that artefacts are “severed” from their enduring spiritual existence is a contemporary form of superstition; but at a time when cultural identities are often given weight by reference to one’s ‘ancestors’, the idea that nothing old or displaced should ever be kept in museums gains traction. Indeed, Angell goes as far as to wonder why we should try to hold onto anything at all: “Preservation is all the time spoken of as a force for unqualified good – but what if disintegration were preferable to being reconstructed by outsiders?”

What underpins the polemic against the “colonial museum” turns out to be a much bigger philistinic indifference towards the value of the modern museum as such. Since it’s nothing more than a fortress full of loot, commentators such as Angell have no interest in whether the British Museum might enlighten anybody about the past. He grudgingly acknowledges that the study of artefacts might provide some people with some insights, but he quickly denounces it as “a pedagogy born of grave-robbing”. And he displays a peculiar snobbery towards the British Museum’s visitors, here likened to animals: schoolchildren are “brought to the museum like livestock to a feed trough”, while the artefacts in the basement must suffer the “distant sound of tourists’ hooves stampeding overhead”. 

Nothing to be learned here, and no value to learning, is Angell’s implication. Like so many people on the “progressive” side of the museums debate, he seems to dislike the modern world so much that he would rather empty the museums, put everything back in the ground, and seek to know nothing of the human past – just as long as the spirits are happy.

Ghosts of the British Museum is published by Monoray at £20. To order your copy for £16.99, call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books

• Ghostbusters,
• British Museum
• Facebook Icon
• WhatsApp Icon

Advertisement

Supported by

editors’ choice

7 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

• Share full article

Where are all the books about work? That question lands in our inbox from time to time, and no wonder: In terms of hours and paychecks and the sense of identity they impart, jobs are a consuming part of our lives that authors do indeed too often neglect. So this week we recommend three books that put the world of paid labor front and center: Adelle Waldman’s novel “Help Wanted” is set in a suburban box store, Hamilton Nolan’s “The Hammer” assesses the current state of union organizing, and Jane Kamensky’s “Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution” takes the measure of a proto-girlboss who went from starring in pornographic movies to launching her own production company with a feminist slant.

Also recommended this week: a look at Saddam Hussein’s state of mind as America and Iraq approached war in 2003, a study of African American literature as a reflection of Black history, a warning about the impacts of climate-fueled migration and, in fiction, Percival Everett’s sparkling riff on the story of Huck Finn, this time centering the character of Huck’s fellow runaway Jim. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

JAMES Percival Everett

In this reworking of the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi River, is the narrator, and he recounts the classic tale in a language that is his own and with surprising details that reveal a far more resourceful, cunning and powerful character than we knew.

“Luxuriates in language. Everett, like Twain, is a master of American argot. … This is Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful.”

From Dwight Garner’s review

Doubleday | $28

CANDIDA ROYALLE AND THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: A History From Below Jane Kamensky

In 1984, Candida Royalle changed the porn industry when she co-founded the female-targeted Femme Productions. As Kamensky convincingly argues in this scholarly and engaging tribute, the performer, producer and director was more than a feminist pioneer; her life mirrored that of the sexual revolution itself.

“Her rigor and thoroughness demand that the reader take seriously an underdog who made her name in a stigmatized industry. This book is a labor of empathy that refuses to simplify or valorize its subject.”

From Rich Juzwiak’s review

Norton | $35

HELP WANTED Adelle Waldman

Waldman’s long-anticipated follow-up to her 2013 debut, “The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.,” applies her sharp sense of relational drama and dark comedy to the retail work space. The big-box store is Town Square, and the cast of characters who toil there are as surprising and varied as the merchandise they stock.

“Waldman is skilled at building momentum and tension through intricacies of plot. The book shines whenever the group is together, concocting plans … in search of a shared sense of hope.”

From Alexandra Chang’s review

Norton | $28.99

THE HAMMER: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Hamilton Nolan

The longtime labor reporter and former Gawker journalist’s lively account of the current landscape of the American labor movement paints colorful portraits of union organizers from across the country alongside a pointed critique of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

“Offers an impressive array of scenes from the front lines of the 21st-century economy. … As ‘The Hammer’ shows, the kind of solidarity that might naturally arise from shared frustrations on the conveyor belt doesn’t necessarily translate to the broader movement all on its own.”

From Willa Glickman’s review

Hachette | $30

THE ACHILLES TRAP: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq Steve Coll

Coll’s book stretches from Hussein’s earliest days in power to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, tracking the dictator’s state of mind with the help of 2,000 hours of rarely accessed audio from high-level meetings that Hussein “recorded as assiduously as Richard Nixon,” Coll says.

“Most of the story is vivid and sometimes even funny. … Unlike his main character, Coll succeeds in part because he has an eye for dramatic irony.”

From Noreen Malone’s review

Penguin Press | $35

ON THE MOVE: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America Abrahm Lustgarten

The climate is changing, says the author, a climate scientist — and drought, fire and heat waves are going to cause massive demographic shifts. To get a sense of the scale of these changes, the author examines studies and models that simulate future migration scenarios, and combines his insights with first-person reportage. The results are often alarming and admittedly speculative, but never less than compelling.

“The author’s eloquent personal insights … are astonishing as well as gripping, presenting an intimate understanding of why poor agricultural workers, beset by droughts and calamitous economic circumstances, risk everything.”

From Jon Gertner’s review

Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $30

THE BLACK BOX: Writing the Race Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In his latest book, the Harvard scholar shows how African American writers have used the written word to shape their reality despite constraints imposed on them from outside, using the metaphor of the box to reflect ordeals withstood and survived since Africans were first brought to this continent.

“The allure of this book, and the reason for its existence, are the narrative links he draws. … This is a literary history of Black America, but it is also an argument that African American history is inextricable from the history of African American literature.”

From Tope Folarin’s review

Penguin Press | $30

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

The actress Rebel Wilson, known for roles in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, gets vulnerable about her weight loss, sexuality and money  in her new memoir.

“City in Ruins” is the third novel in Don Winslow’s Danny Ryan trilogy and, he says, his last book. He’s retiring in part to invest more time into political activism .

​​Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation,” is “wildly optimistic” about Gen Z. Here’s why .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .