100 Best Indian Author Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

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1

The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy

5.0

Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is a modern classic that has been read and loved worldwide. Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevokably by t

Recommended by William Dalrymple.

William Dalrymple

Of all the great modern Indian novels, of which there has been a flood, Arundhati Roy is the one I enjoyed most. It’s got that fabulous quality, in the literal sense. It has a craftsmanship to it, and one of the greatest endings to any novel. There are so few modern novels which end perfectly, with that perfect click into place, the lock clicking shut. But it has that, and it’s a very well-worked, well-written novel. I hope she repeats it at some point in the future. [source]

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2

The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga

5.0

The White Tiger is a compelling first novel about the new India that is growing roots all around us, in unexpected and often ominous ways.

'Compelling, angry, and darkly humorous, The White Tiger is an unexpected journey into a new India. Aravind Adiga is a talent to watch.' Mohsin Hamid, Booker-shortlisted author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist

'In the grand illusions of a "rising" India, Aravind A

Recommended by Robert McCrum and Shekhar Kapur.

Robert McCrum

This book won the Man Booker prize and I think it is a wonderful book which is written in this very gripping Indian English. It is very high octane. Here is someone who has taken this phenomenon of the liberation of English into the global arena and turned it into literature. He is Indian, highly educated and a very good writer and he has taken a what can be sometimes incomprehensible global form of English and transformed it. [source]

Shekhar Kapur

It’s an amazing book, White Tiger. Arvind Adiga at this best ! Read many scripts, none had the sheer power of the book .. great to know that there is one that measures up to the book , good luck! @priyankachopra https://t.co/VsvZFBdmy8 [source]

3

The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy, #1)

Amish Tripath

4.9

1900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. This once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. The

4

The Secret of the Nagas (Shiva Trilogy #2)

Amish Tripathi

4.8

Today, He is a God.

4000 years ago, He was just a man.

The hunt is on. The sinister Naga warrior has killed his friend Brahaspati and now stalks his wife Sati. Shiva, the Tibetan immigrant who is the prophesied destroyer of evil, will not rest till he finds his demonic adversary. His vengeance and the path to evil will lead him to the door of the Nagas, the serpent people. Of that he is certain.

T

5

2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Chetan Bhagat

4.8

Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish

Recommended by Patrick French.

Patrick French

Chetan Bhagat is one of the most commercially successful novelists in India at the moment. I find him a very entertaining and revealing writer. It’s a boy-meets-girl story, about Krish and Ananya. [source]

6

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

4.8

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India.

The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill s

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Jacqueline Novogratz, Michael Peel, and 1 others.

Jacqueline Novogratz

A Dickensian novel that captures the essence of being poor in urban India in ways extraordinary and deeply human. [source]

Michael Peel

The book is full of these terrible moments and yet at the end of it you feel strangely uplifted. [source]

Stuart Rutherford

A great romp of a novel, set in western India. In a way, it’s a precursor of Slumdog Millionaire, but much darker. [source]

7

Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT

Chetan Bhagat

4.7

Five Point Someone is a story about three friends in IIT who are unable to cope.

The book starts with a disclaimer, “This is not a book to teach you how to get into IIT or even how to live in college. In fact, it describes how screwed up things can get if you don’t think straight.”

Three hostelmates – Alok, Hari and Ryan get off to a bad start in IIT – they screw up the first class quiz. And while t

8

Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.7

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this stunning debut collection unerringly charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. "A writer of uncommon sensitivity and restraint...Ms. Lahiri expertly captures the out-of-context lives of immigrants, expatriates, and first-generation Americans" (Wall Street Journal). In stories that tra

Recommended by Jane Kamensky and Leah Lizarondo.

Jane Kamensky

Lahirihas a great knack for showing both the closeness and the distance of peoples and cities. They seem so close together at the same time, they’re incredibly far apart. [source]

Leah Lizarondo

Given free time to do anything I would read fiction. This book took me out of a long dry spell because it is a collection of short stories that I could read while in the bath. Each story is written so beautifully, I still remember putting the book down from time to time, just to close my eyes and absorb what I just read. [source]

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9

The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.7

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise

Recommended by Agnivo Niyogi ( ).

Agnivo Niyogi ( )

Jhumpa Lahiri. The name itself evokes nostalgia. Her book ‘The Namesake’ was among the first ones I bought from College Street after shifting to #Kolkata. She is synonymous with Presidency (College) for me. The Bengali in me will forever be in love with your works. Happy Birthday [source]

10

The Palace of Illusions

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

4.7

A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat—told from the point of view of an amazing woman.

Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale.

The n

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11

A Suitable Boy (A Suitable Boy, #1)

Vikram Seth

4.6

Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find—through love or through exacting maternal appraisal—a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compuls

Recommended by Ed Smith.

Ed Smith

My father, who’s a novelist and was a teacher for many years, taught Vikram when he came to England to study for his A-levels in the 1970s. I can remember my dad telling me later on, in the late 1980s, that one of his ex-pupils was going to be the greatest writer of his generation. When I was in my teens Vikram came to talk at his old school, where I was studying, and he stayed with us. That was when I got to know him and when my father got to know him again. [source]

12

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Don Miguel Ruiz, Janet Mills

4.6

Preview Summary

In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally,

Recommended by Charlamagne Tha God, Jack Dorsey, James Altucher, and 14 others.

Charlamagne Tha God

Radio Presenter/The Breakfast Club

These are the books I recommend people to listen to on @applebooks. [source]

Jack Dorsey

Co-Founder/Twitter

Question: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! [source]

Karlie Kloss

I just think it’s got a lot of great principles and ideas. [source]

13

The 3 Mistakes of My Life

Chetan Bhagat

4.6

In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize th

14

The Oath of the Vayuputras (Shiva Trilogy, #3)

Amish Tripath

4.6

ONLY A GOD CAN STOP IT.

Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose name instils dread in the fiercest of warriors.

India convulses under the onslaught of a series of brutal battles. It's a war for the very soul of the nation. Many will die. But Shiva must not fail, n

15

Scion of Ikshvaku (Ram Chandra #1)

Amish Tripathi

4.5

Ram Rajya. The Perfect Land. But perfection has a price. He paid that price.

3400 BCE. INDIA
Ayodhya is weakened by divisions. A terrible war has taken its toll. The damage runs deep. The demon King of Lanka, Raavan, does not impose his rule on the defeated. He, instead, imposes his trade. Money is sucked out of the empire. The Sapt Sindhu people descend into poverty, despondency and corruption. The

16

Train to Pakistan

Khushwant Singh

4.5

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17

Midnight's Children

Salman Rushdie

4.5

Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously "handcuffed to history" by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent—and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts—inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of sm

18

I Too Had a Love Story

Ravinder Singh

4.5

Do love stories ever die?. . . How would you react when a beautiful person comes into your life, and then goes away from you . . . forever?
Not all love stories are meant to have a perfect ending. I Too Had a Love Story is one such saga. It is the tender and heartfelt tale of Ravin and Khushi—two people who found each other on a matrimonial site and fell in love . . . until life put their love to t

19

Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition

Chetan Bhagat

4.5

Book Summary of Revolution 2020 Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys. One wanted to use his intelligence to make money. One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution. The problem was, they both loved the same girl. Welcome to Revolution 2020. A story about childhood friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarti who struggle to find success and love in Varanasi. How

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20

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

Ramachandra Guha

4.5

A magisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-tha

Recommended by Kaushik Basu, Lord Meghnad Desai, Pankhuri Pathak, and 1 others.

Kaushik Basu

As a book on recent India, it’s one of the best, maybe the best, that I’ve read – a mammoth amount of information, put together in a way that anybody can read. [source]

Lord Meghnad Desai

This is a very detailed account of India over the past 60 years in one single volume. It is pro-Nehru, so it is a very secular view. [source]

Pankhuri Pathak

If I were only allowed... One cuisine: Mughlai One author: J K Rowling One musician: Jagjeet Singh One season: Monsoon One city: Varanasi One game: Tekken 3 One book: India After Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha One movie: PS I Love You One colour: Black How about you? https://t.co/yG0cfCzRBj [source]

21

Malgudi Days

R. K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri

4.5

Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennial

Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story.” Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents

22

Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.5

Eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any Lahiri has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.

From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotion

23

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi

4.5

Preview Summary

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve me

Recommended by Bill Gates, Ryan Holiday, Bethany S. Mandel, and 2 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I don’t know how Kalanithi found the physical strength to write this book while he was so debilitated by the disease and then potent chemotherapy. But I’m so glad he did. He spent his whole brief life searching for meaning in one way or another -- through books, writing, medicine, surgery, and science. I’m grateful that, by reading this book, I got to witness a small part of that journey. I just wish the journey hadn’t been cut so short [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Despite its popularity, When Breath Becomes Air is actually underrated. It’s make-you-cry good. [source]

Bethany S. Mandel

More Shabbat reading recommendations: This book was breathtaking and such a powerful advertisement for the joy of parenthood. https://t.co/V8BH97eiL9 [source]

24

Wings of Fire: An Autobiography

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari

4.4

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, the son of a little-educated boat-owner in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, had an unparalleled career as a defence scientist, culminating in the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna. As chief of the country's defence research and development programme, Kalam demonstrated the great potential for dynamism and innovation that existed in seemingly moribund res

25

One Night at the Call Center

Chetan Bhagat

4.4

Press 1 for technical support.
Press 2 for broken hearts.
Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . .

Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience–and accent management–they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody’s heart is on the line.

Shyam (Sam to his ca

26

Swami and Friends

R. K. Narayan

4.4

"There are writers—Tolstoy and Henry James to name two—whom we hold in awe, writers—Turgenev and Chekhov—for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect—Conrad for example—but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace.' Narayan (whom I don't hesitate to name in such a context) more than any of them wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offere

27

Half Girlfriend

Chetan Bhagat

4.4

HALF GIRLFRIEND (HINDI) Once upon a time, there was a Bihari boy called Madhav. He fell in love with a girl from Delhi called Riya. Madhav didn't speak English well. Riya did. Madhav wanted a relationship. Riya didn't. Riya just wanted friendship. Madhav didn't. Riya suggested a compromise. She agreed to be his half girlfriend. From the author of the blockbuster novels Five Point Someone, One Nigh

28

Chanakya's Chant

ASHWIN SANGHI

4.4

The year is 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces

29

The Hungry Tide

Amitav Ghosh

4.4

Off the easternmost corner of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans, where settlers live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. Piya Roy, a young American marine biologist of Indian descent, arrives in this lush, treacherous landscape in search of a rare species of river dolphin and enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a trans

Recommended by Cassie Knight and Robert Macfarlane.

Cassie Knight

I selected this book because it is set in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, which is the mangrove coastal area that is prone to cyclones. It contains a vivid description of a cyclone. Just last week I was visiting the cyclone-hit area of the Sundarbans and to have an image of what it is like makes it so much more real. Even though I have spoken to people who have lived through a cyclone, I sometimes find that fiction can make me understand things more fully. [source]

Robert Macfarlane

@srijanapiya17 @GhoshAmitav It’s a brilliant book. One I have both read and taught here in Cambridge. [source]

30

Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Devdutt Pattanaik

4.4

High above the sky stands Swarga, paradise, abode of the gods. Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God.

The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean 'victory'. One keeps you in Swarga; the other raises you into Vaikuntha.

In Vaikuntha there is bliss forever, in Swarga there is pleasure for only as long as you deserve. What is the difference between Jaya a

31

Milk and Honey

Rupi Kaur

4.3

Preview Summary

Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.

The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because ther

32

The Krishna Key

Ashwin Sanghi

4.3

Five thousand years ago, there came to earth a magical being called Krishna, who brought about innumerable miracles for the good of mankind. Humanity despaired of its fate if the Blue God were to die but was reassured that he would return in a fresh avatar when needed in the eventual Dark Age—the Kaliyug.

In modern times, a poor little rich boy grows up believing that he is that final avatar.

Only,

33

The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh

4.3

Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

What I really liked about this novel is the way it describes an individual’s place in history. It’s not so much that Ghosh makes a judgement on whether we are agents or victims of history, but he explores the different ways in which individuals react to particular incidents, and how some manage to overcome adversity. The Glass Palace follows the life of the last Burmese king and his family. It begins shortly before the king was deposed and sent into exile by the British army. [source]

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34

Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)

Amitav Ghosh

4.3

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As

35

The Great Indian Novel

Shashi Tharoor

4.3

In this widely acclaimed novel, Shashi Tharoor has masterfully recast the two-thousand-year-old epic "The Mahabharata" with fictionalized - but highly recognizable - events and characters from twentieth-century Indian politics. Blending history and myth to chronicle the Indian struggle for freedom and independence, Tharoor directs his hilarious and often outrageous satire as much against Indian fo

36

The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.3

Two brothers bound by tragedy; a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past; a country torn by revolution. A powerful new novel--set in both India and America--that explores the price of idealism and a love that can last long past death.

Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also op

Recommended by Barack Obama.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr [source]

37

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie

4.3

Preview Summary

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, with a foreword from Jaqueline Woodson.
Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully writt

Recommended by Rand Fishkin.

Rand Fishkin

Empathy is at the core of my beliefs, and this is one of the best books I’ve ever read that fosters empathetic thinking. It’s also a great reminder of how hard it is to accomplish anything when your life circumstances and surroundings negatively contribute to progress and a great reminder to stay humble. [source]

38

Sita: Warrior of Mithila (Ram Chandra #2)

Amish

4.3

India, 3400 BCE.

India is beset with divisions, resentment and poverty. The people hate their rulers. They despise their corrupt and selfish elite. Chaos is just one spark away. Outsiders exploit these divisions. Raavan, the demon king of Lanka, grows increasingly powerful, sinking his fangs deeper into the hapless Sapt Sindhu.

Two powerful tribes, the protectors of the divine land of India, decide

39

The Inheritance of Loss

Kiran Desai

4.3

In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s cook watches over her distractedly, for his thoughts are often on his son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another. Kiran Desai’s brilliant novel, pu

40

The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography with a Foreword by the Gandhi Research Foundation

M. K. Gandhi

4.3

It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography.

...Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification, the observance of the law of Ahimsa mu

Recommended by Barack Obama, Tim Cook, Cory Booker, and 2 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

According to the president’s Facebook page and a 2008 interview with the New York Times, this title is among his most influential forever favorites. [source]

Tim Cook

CEO/Apple

I have two books going right now: One is the Bobby Kennedy book “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon,” by Larry Tye that just came out. The other is quite an old book. It’s a Gandhi book “Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth” that I got interested in because we went to the Gandhi museum when we were in India recently. I tend to like nonfiction and particularly reading about people and how they lived and how they fought, and what motivated them and their philosophy and so forth. [source]

Cory Booker

A profound read. [source]

41

Ghachar Ghochar

Vivek Shanbhag, Srinath Perur

4.3

A young man's close-knit family is nearly destitute when his uncle founds a successful spice company, changing their fortunes overnight. As they move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house on the other side of Bangalore, and try to adjust to a new way of life, the family dynamic begins to shift. Allegiances realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews omino

42

கொலையுதிர் காலம் [Kolaiyuthir Kaalam]

Anand Neelakantan

4.2

அறிவியலுக்கும் அமானுஷ்யத்திற்கும் இடையே நிகழும் தீராத போராட்டத்தை முன்வைக்கும் இந்நாவல் கணேஷ் வசந்த் தோன்றும் சுஜாதாவின் படைப்புகளில் பெரும் புகழ்பெற்றதாகும். மனதை அதிர வைக்கும் சம்பவங்களும் எதிர்பாராத திருப்பங்களும் தீர்க்கமுடியாத புதிர்களும் நிறைந்த கொலையுதிர் காலம் வெளிவந்த காலத்திலிருந்தே வாசகர்களின் உற்சாகமான வாசிப்பிற்கு உரியதாக இருந்து வந்திருக்கிறது.

43

The Guide

R. K. Narayan, Michael Gorra

4.2

Formerly India's most corrupt tourist guide, Raju-just released from prison- seeks refuge in an abandoned temple. Mistaken for a holy man, he plays the part and succeeds so well that God himself intervenes to put Raju's newfound sanctity to the test. Narayan's most celebrated novel, The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor.

44

The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran

4.2

Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chap

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Daylon Soh, Jason Nemer, and 3 others.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

It actually read like a modern-day poetic religious tome. Up there with the Bhagavad-gita, the Tao Te Ching, The Bible, The Qur’an. It was written in that style where it had that feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable and beautiful and non-denominational and non-secretarian. I really liked that. I loved that book. He has a gift for poetically describing what children are like, what lovers are like, what marriage should be like, how you should treat your enemies and your friends, how you should work with money, what can you think of every time you have to kill something to eat it. I felt, like the great religious books, it gave a very deep, very philosophical, but very true answer to how to approach the major problems in life. I recommend The Prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian or Hindu or Jewish or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading. [source]

Daylon Soh

The non-business book that has connected to my being most deeply would be poems in The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. [source]

Jason Nemer

I love really condensed, shakti empowerment-filled, energy-filled statements - something that you can read in a few minutes or you can read for your whole life. [source]

45

The Illicit Happiness of Other People

Manu Joseph

4.2

Ousep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being “the last of the real men.” This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying. One day, their seemingly happy seventeen-year-old son Unni—an obsessed comic-book artist—falls from the balco

46

Can Love Happen Twice?

Ravinder Singh

4.2

When Ravin first said ‘I love you . . .’ he meant it forever. The world has known this through Ravin’s bestselling novel, I Too Had a Love Story. But did Ravin’s story really end on the last page of that book?

On Valentine’s Day, a radio station in Chandigarh hosts a very special romantic chat show. Ravin and his three best friends are invited as guests to talk about Ravin’s love story. But surpris

47

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Siddhartha Mukherjee

4.2

Preview Summary

Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 1439107955 (ISBN13: 9781439107959)

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Sid

Recommended by Bill Gates and Timothy J. Jorgensen.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I loved this brilliant book about cancer. [source]

Timothy J. Jorgensen

A tremendous amount of cancer biology comes through in that book through the eyes of the victims and the people up close and personal. [source]

48

Em and The Big Hoom

Jerry Pinto

4.2

In a one-bedroom-hall-kitchen in Mahim, Bombay, through the last decades of the twentieth century, lived four love-battered Mendeses: mother, father, son and daughter. Between Em, the mother, driven frequently to hospital after her failed suicide attempts, and The Big Hoom, the father, trying to hold things together as best he could, they tried to be a family.

49

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

Amartya Sen

4.2

A Nobel Laureate offers a dazzling new book about his native country
India is a country with many distinct traditions, widely divergent customs, vastly different convictions, and a veritable feast of viewpoints. In The Argumentative Indian," Amartya Sen draws on a lifetime study of his country's history and culture to suggest the ways we must understand India today in the light of its rich, long ar

Recommended by David Marquand, Kaushik Basu, Mark Tully, and 2 others.

David Marquand

He shows that in fact there were roots of a democratic culture in India long before the British ever got there, and that is what he means by the ‘argumentative Indian’. [source]

Kaushik Basu

Depending how you count, almost any nation could be portrayed as argumentative. But he uses this central theme to range over an amazing breadth of scholarship [source]

Mark Tully

I like this book because it argues that Indians are by their very nature deliberative, they like discussing. I like this because I think it is one of the great features of India which people in the West can learn from – that Indians don’t see things in black and white in the way that we do. They don’t take polar opposite positions in the way that we do. Instead they like to discuss and to debate. I would argue, although this isn’t absolutely spelt out in the book, that this is all about trying to find the middle way, trying to find compromise rather than having conflict. [source]

50

One Indian Girl

Chetan Bhagat

4.2

Hi, I'm Radhika Mehta and I'm getting married this week. I work at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. Thank you for reading my story. However, let me warn you.

You may not like me too much. One, I make a lot of money. Two, I have an opinion on everything. Three, I have had a boyfriend before. OK, maybe two.

Now if all this was the case with a guy, one might be cool with it. But since I am a girl the

51

Cutting for Stone

Abraham Verghese

4.2

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preter

Recommended by Barack Obama and Daniel Hamermesh.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years. [source]

Daniel Hamermesh

This novel from a decade ago should be read by every American interested in immigration. While it deals with a lot of medical details, the essence of it is about urban life in developing countries and about the immigrant experience. It is both moving and thought-provoking. [source]

52

Mrs Funnybones

Twinkle Khanna

4.2

Good morning, it’s 6 a.m. and I am wide awake because the man of the house has decided that he needs to perform a series of complex manoeuvres that involve him balancing on his left elbow. When I fell asleep last night, there was a baby lying next to me. Her smelly diaper is still wedged on my head but aside from this rather damp clue, I can't seem to find her anywhere. I could ask my mother-in-la

53

The Room on the Roof

Ruskin Bond

4.2

The Room on the Roof is Ruskin Bond’s masterpiece of adolescence and coming of age. Written when the author was seventeen, it brilliantly describes the hopes and passions that capture young minds and hearts. A moving tale of love and friendship, it has endured as Bond’s most beloved novel.

54

Family Matters

Rohinton Mistry

4.1

Rohinton Mistry’s enthralling novel is at once a domestic drama and an intently observed portrait of present-day Bombay in all its vitality and corruption. At the age of seventy-nine, Nariman Vakeel, already suffering from Parkinson’s disease, breaks an ankle and finds himself wholly dependent on his family. His step-children, Coomy and Jal, have a spacious apartment (in the inaptly named Chateau

55

The Shadow Lines: A Novel

Amitav Ghosh

4.1

“A stunning novel” following two families—one British, one Bengali—from the New York Times–bestselling author of Sea of Poppies (TheNew Republic).

Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh’s radiant second novel follows an English family and a Bengali family as their lives intertwine across the generations in both tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces e

56

The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol. 1

Satyajit Ray, Chitrita Banerji, Gopa Majumdar

4.1

Between 1965 and 1992, Satyajit Ray wrote a total of 35 Feluda stories, featuring the master sleuth Pradosh C. Mitter, AKA Feluda. The plots involve murder, mystery and adventure, most of the times in exotic locations, narrated in a racy, humorous style by the detective's cousin-cum-assistant Topeshranjan Mitter AKA Topshe, and in most cases, accompanied by the funny Lalmohan Ganguly AKA Jatayu, w

57

The Twentieth Wife (Taj Mahal Trilogy, #1)

Indu Sundaresan

4.1

An enchanting seventeenth-century epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses -- a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal empire.

She came into the world in the year 1577, to the howling accompaniment of a ferocious winter stor

58

Secret Daughter

Shilpi Somaya Gowda

4.1

Somer's life is everything she imagined it would be — she's newly married and has started her career as a physician in San Francisco — until she makes the devastating discovery she never will be able to have children.

The same year in India, a poor mother makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter's life by giving her away. It is a decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of he

59

Life is What You Make It: A Story of Love, Hope and How Determination Can Overcome Even Destiny

Preeti Shenoy

4.1

Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

The heart-warming story of a young girl who struggles against all odds, when life as she knows it is disrupted What would you do if the perfect life you have is torn asunder?

Set across two cities in India in the early eighties, Life Is What You Make It is a gripping account of the years that change young Ankita Sharma's life. Pretty and intelligent,

60

Sacred Games

Vikram Chandra

4.1

Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of Inspector Sartaj Singh—and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India. It is is a story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side.

Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness and power. Vikram Chandra's novel dra

61

Mahashweta

Sudha Murty

4.1

Anupama looked into the mirror and shivered with shock. A small white patch had now appeared on her arm.' Anupama's fairytale marriage to Anand falls apart when she discovers a white patch on her foot and learns that she has leukoderma. Abandoned by her uncaring in-laws and insensitive husband, she is forced to return to her father's home in the village. The social stigma of a married woman living

62

Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits

Rahul Pandita

4.1

Rahul Pandita was fourteen years old in 1990 when he was forced to leave his home in Srinagar along with his family, who were Kashmiri Pandits: the Hindu minority within a Muslim majority Kashmir that was becoming increasingly agitated with the cries of ‘Azadi’ from India. The heartbreaking story of Kashmir has so far been told through the prism of the brutality of the Indian state, and the pro-in

63

Shantaram

Gregory David Roberts

4.1

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security pri

Recommended by Richard Branson, Henry Medine, Irina Marinescu, and 3 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Henry Medine

I promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science. [source]

Irina Marinescu

I am always eager to learn how people think and form friendships, how they deal with life's challenges and still remain human. This book delivers that and even more! Shantaram takes you on an incredible journey and you return a changed person. [source]

64

The Blue Umbrella

Ruskin Bond

4.1

'The umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside.'

In exchange for her lucky leopard's claw pendant, Binya acquires a beautiful blue umbrella that makes her the envy of everyone in the village, especially Ram Bharosa, the shopkeeper. It is the prettiest umbrella in the whole village and she carries it everywhere she goes.

The Blue Umbrella is a short

65

Cobalt Blue

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

4.1

Sachin Kundalkar started on his first novel at 20 and finished it when he was 22. The novel was Cobalt Blue, the story of a brother and sister who fall in love with the same man, and how a traditional Marathi family is shattered by the ensuing events – a work that both shocked and spoke to Marathi readers.

66

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana

Devdutt Pattanaik

4.1

SITA : AN ILLUSTRATED RETELLING OF THE RAMAYANA
It is significant that the only character in Hindu mythology, a king at that, to be given the title of ekam-patni-vrata, devoted to a single wife, is associated with the most unjust act of abandoning her in the forest to protect family reputation. This seems a deliberate souring of an uplifting narrative. Rams refusal to remarry to produce a royal hei

67

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer

4.1

Preview Summary

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celeb

Recommended by Oliver Sacks Fdn. and Sarah Taber.

Oliver Sacks Fdn.

As a writer, Oliver Sacks found gardens essential to the creative process. Check out our year-end newsletter, devoted to some beautiful books by botanist-writers that would make great gifts for all your plant-loving friends. https://t.co/2U8iEv4L1x https://t.co/IK1cgIMJhE [source]

Sarah Taber

Yeah that's because most of those books are actually just sanctimonious classists pretending they're trying to fix problems. That's why they're depressing If you want a book that's actually about moving forward, "Braiding Sweetgrass" is FANTASTIC. https://t.co/Drr1tmwhSs [source]

68

Gently Falls the Bakula

Sudha Murty

4.1

69

Serious Men

Manu Joseph

4.1

A poignant, bitingly funny Indian satire and love story set in a scientific institute and in Mumbai’s humid tenements.

Ayyan Mani, one of the thousands of dalit (untouchable caste) men trapped in Mumbai’s slums, works in the Institute of Theory and Research as the lowly assistant to the director, a brilliant self-assured astronomer. Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves two plots, one involving his

70

Sister of My Heart (Anju and Sudha #1)

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

4.1

Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family; her cousin Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of the family. Sudha is as beautiful, tenderhearted, and serious as Anju is plain, whip-smart, and defiant. yet since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju have been bonded in ways even their mothers cannot comprehend.

The cousins' bond is shattered, however, when Sudha learns a dark family

71

Such a Long Journey

Rohinton Mistry

4.1

It is Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over what was to become Bangladesh. A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter falls ill; his promising son defies his father’s ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his neighbours. One day, he receives a letter from an ol

72

The Discovery of India

Jawaharlal Nehru

4.1

In conjunction with the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund in New Delhi, Oxford proudly announces the reissue of Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India, two famous works by Jawaharlal Nehru. One of modern day's most articulate statesmen, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a on a wide variety of subjects. Describing himself as "a dabbler in many things," he committed his life not only to politics but

Recommended by Nitin Pai.

Nitin Pai

The first book you must read to prepare for 2020 is Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Discovery of India”; followed by Tagore’s essays on Nationalism. The rest of the reading list is here, including @Yascha_Mounk’s “The People vs Democracy” #BookRecommendations #2020 https://t.co/2yFweKLz1C [source]

73

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Arundhati Roy

4.1

A dazzling, moving new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The God of Small Things

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent--from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war.
It is an aching love story an

Recommended by Maria Ramos.

Maria Ramos

CEO/Barclays Africa

Ramos will take the summer to examine some of the questions weighing more heavily on humankind as we contemplate our collective future: what happens when we can write our own genetic codes, and what happens when we create technology that is meaningfully more intelligent than us. The Gene: An Intimate History—Siddhartha Mukherjee Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies—Nick Bostrom The Ministry of Utmost Happiness—Arundhati Roy [source]

74

The Bhagavad Gita

Eknath Easwaran

4.1

Preview Summary

Recommended by Ryan Holiday, Bernard Tan, Bill Liao, and 1 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

I read The Bhagavad Gita, which is something I wasn’t ready for before, but glad to finally understand. [source]

Bernard Tan

The “Tao Te King” by Lao Tzu probably resonated with me the strongest, but others like the “Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “Bhagavad Gita” or Zen Buddhist scriptures were also real eye-openers, even for a non-religious person like myself. [source]

Bill Liao

The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! [source]

75

The Zoya Factor

Anuja Chauhan

4.1

Alternate cover edition can be found here.

When the younger players in India's cricket team find out that advertising executive Zoya Singh Solanki was born at the very moment India won the World Cup back in 1983, they are intrigued. When having breakfast with her is followed by victories on the field, they are impressed. And when not eating with her results in defeat, they decide she's a lucky cha

76

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Ibram X. Kendi

4.1

Preview Summary

Americans like to insist that they are living in a post-racial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, racist ideas in America have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.

In this

Recommended by Bianca Belair.

Bianca Belair

For #BHM I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 27th Book: Stamped from the Beginning Written by: @DrIbram When I found this book I couldn’t believe that I had never learned about the information in this book. A book everyone should read. Eye-opening! https://t.co/pLaifB8DFI [source]

77

English, August: An Indian Story

Upamanyu Chatterjee, Akhil Sharma

4.1

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

This is one of the first books I read in English that was written by an Indian. What amazed me at the time was the sarcasm within it, which is very strong. The novel is about a young trainee civil servant called Agastya Sen who is posted to Madna, in India’s hinterland. Agastya had grown up in the cosmopolitan city of Delhi and he finds it very difficult to cope with his new environment. He lacks enthusiasm for a life in administration, and he is more interested in smoking marijuana and having fun. The young man faces an existential crisis, which is the focus of the book. It’s very funny, and very convincing too – the author was himself a member of the Indian Administrative Service for many years. [source]

78

A Walk in the Rain

Edward Hallowell and Bill Mayer

4.1

Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN13: 9781482842852

Love is elixir that keeps you alive. Love is poison that kills you. Unreciprocated love keeps you alive but kills every day.

Heartbroken Sunny lives a reclusive life, trapped in the past, living in his memories. He has no complaints about his life but refuses to embrace the present.

Saloni is a prostitute who is desperate to earn money by any means. S

Cover unavailable

79

Kept: An American Househusband in India

Gregory E. Buford

4.1

Kept: An American Househusband in India is a hilarious, heart-warming tale of a company man turned trailing spouse when his wife gets his dream job and drags him halfway around the globe. World travelers and armchair tourists alike will marvel as Greg and Dana dine with royalty, smash an immigrant smuggling ring, flee angry mobs, foil a terrorist plot and survive a Russian rocket assault. When the

80

Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India

A.P.J Abdul Kalam

4.1

The book examines why, given all our skills, resources and talents, we, so obviously capable of being the best, settle so often for the worst. What is it that we as a nation are missing? At the heart of the book is the belief that the people of a nation have the power, by dint od hard work, to realize their dream of a truly good life. Lalam takes up different issues and themes that struck him on h

81

The Rozabal Line

Shawn Haigins, Ashwin Sanghi

4.1

A cardboard box is found on a shelf of a London library where a copy of Mahabharata should have been. When the mystified librarian opens it, she screams before she falls unconscious to the floor. An elite group calling itself the Lashkar-e-Talatashar has scattered around the globe, the fate of its members curiously resembling that of Christ and his Apostles. Their agenda is Armageddon. In the laby

82

Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen

Kavita Kane

4.0

Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen tells the extraordinary story of Karna, the unsung hero of the Mahabharata, through the eyes of his wife Uruvi, bringing his story to the reader from a unique perspective.

An accomplished Kshatriya princess who falls in love with and dares to choose the sutaputra over Arjun, Uruvi must come to terms with the social implications of her marriage and learn to use her

83

Dollar Bahu

Sudha Murty

4.0

A story of how money corrupts the way people look at one another and how it can almost tear a family apart

Vinuta marries Girish, a bank clerk, and starts living with his family in Bangalore. She adjusts to her new family well, looking after her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law Gouramma, not taking to heart her mother-in-law’s constant picking. But when Girish’s elder brother Chandru, who i

84

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

Shashi Tharoor

4.0

Inglorious Empire tells the real story of the British in India — from the arrival of the East India Company to the end of the Raj — and reveals how Britain’s rise was built upon its plunder of India.

In the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empir

Recommended by Tariq Ramadan.

Tariq Ramadan

A great speech by the author of the excellent book : "The Inglorious Empire" @ShashiTharoor 1/2 #India https://t.co/K2ywc8JypW [source]

85

Gitanjali: Song Offering (গীতাঞ্জলি): English & Bengali Version together

Rabindranath Tagore

4.0

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was one of the most important writers in 20th-century Indian literature. Among his expansive and impressive body of work, "Gitanjali" is regarded as one of his greatest achievements, and has been a perennial bestseller since it was first published in 1910.

86

Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

Sudha Murty

4.0

87

Q&A

Vikas Swarup

4.0

Ram Mohammad Thomas has been arrested. Because how can a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school correctly answer all twelve questions on the television game show Who Will Win a Billion?—unless he has cheated?

As the story unfolds, Ram explains to his lawyer how he knew the answer to each question by telling a chapter of his amazing life—from the day he was salvaged from a dust

88

ആടുജീവിതം | Aatujeevitham

Benyamin

4.0

ലക്ഷകണക്കിനു മലയാളികള്‍ ഗള്‍ഫില്‍ ജീവിക്കുന്നു, ലക്ഷങ്ങള്‍ ജീവിച്ചു തിരിച്ചു പോയിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇതില്‍ എത്ര പേര്‍ മരുഭൂമിയുടെ തീക്ഷ്‌ണത സത്യമായും അനുഭവിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. ആ തീക്ഷ്ണത തൊട്ടറിഞ്ഞ, അഥവാ മണല്‍‌പരപ്പിലെ ജീവിതം ചുട്ടുപൊള്ളിച്ച നജീബ് എന്നയാളുടെ അനുഭവമാണ് ആടുജീവിതത്തിനു പ്രേരണയായതെന്ന് നോവലിസ്‌റ്റ് ബെന്യാമിന്‍ പറയുന്നു. പ്രവാസജീവിതത്തിലെ തികച്ചും വ്യത്യസ്‌തമായ ഒരേട്.

89

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta (Ram Chandra #3)

Amish Tripathi

4.0

WITHOUT THE DARKNESS, LIGHT HAS NO PURPOSE.

WITHOUT THE VILLAIN, WHAT WOULD THE GODS DO?

INDIA, 3400 BCE.

A land in tumult, poverty and chaos. Most people suffer quietly. A few rebel. Some fight for a better world. Some for themselves. Some don’t give a damn. Raavan. Fathered by one of the most illustrious sages of the time. Blessed by the Gods with talents beyond all. Cursed by fate to be tested to

Cover unavailable

90

River of Smoke

Amitav Ghosh

4.0

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of Year
A NPR Best Book of the Year

In Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, the Ibis began its treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean, bound for the cane fields of Mauritius with a cargo of indentured servants. Now, in River of Smoke, the former slave ship flounders in the Bay of Bengal, caught in the midst of a deadly

91

Untouchable

Mulk Raj Anand, E. M. Forster

4.0

Bakha is a young man, proud and even attractive, yet none the less he is an outcast in India's caste system: an Untouchable. This novel describes a day in the life of Bakha, sweeper and toilet-cleaner, as he searches for a meaning to the tragic existence he has been born into - and comes to an unexpected conclusion.

92

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Suketu Mehta

4.0

A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs; following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse; opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood; and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in sea

93

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories

Sudha Murthy

4.0

94

Ajaya: Roll of the Dice (Epic of the Kaurava Clan, #1)

Anand Neelakantan

4.0

CROSSWORD TOP 10 BOOK OF 2013 & 2014

CROSSWORD AWARD 2014 SHORTLISTED

THE MAHABHARATA ENDURES AS THE GREAT EPIC OF INDIA. But while Jaya is the story of the Pandavas, told from the perspective of the victors of Kurukshetra; Ajaya is the narrative of the ‘unconquerable’ Kauravas, who were decimated to the last man.

***
At the heart of India’s most powerful empire, a revolution is brewing. Bhishma, the

95

How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company

Varun Agarwal

4.0

How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company by Varun Agarwal is a compelling and humorous account of the fulfilment of entrepreneurial dreams.

How does an unfocused young person such as Varun Agarwal, become the co-founder of a million dollar company? How does he get pesky Anu Aunty off his trail? The book is an interesting real-life story of how the author, Varun Agarwal, manage

96

The Pale-Faced Lie

David Crow

4.0

A violent ex-con forces his son to commit crimes in this riveting new memoir

Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his three siblings idolized their dad. Tall, strong, smart, and brave, the self-taught Cherokee regaled his family with stories of his World War II feats. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethi

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97

The Mahabharata

Anonymous, John D. Smith

4.0

Originally published in the year 1951, the huge popularity of the book has resulted in the book being re-printed several times. Centuries ago, it was proclaimed of the Mahabharata: "What is not in it, is nowhere." But even now, we can use the same words about it. He who knows it not, knows not the heights and depths of the soul; he misses the trials and tragedy and the beauty and grandeur of life.

Recommended by William Dalrymple.

William Dalrymple

It’s one of the world’s great myths, an epic poem. It’s eight times the length of the Bible, one of the great works of literature of mankind. I came to it via the Peter Brook film, and read the script subsequently, and it is every bit as good as it’s made out to be. A very rare thing. It has a sort of Shakespearian ambiguity; you feel as much for the baddies as for the goodies. No one is pure. The bad guys aren’t entirely bad, the good guys aren’t entirely good. It’s brilliantly done, and the most gripping story ever told. [source]

98

The English Teacher

R. K. Narayan

4.0

This novel completes the informal trilogy which began with Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. The protagonist, Krishna, is an English teacher at the same college he had attended as a student. Although Krishna has recently married, his wife Susila and their daughter live with his parents-in-law some miles away. The story opens with his immediate family deciding to join him in Malgudi. Kris

Recommended by Mark Tully.

Mark Tully

Krishnan is often seen as RK Narayan. I have chosen it as a tribute to Narayan, who was internationally discovered by Graham Greene. I love the writing of Graham Greene and I love the writing of Narayan, in part because it is such clean writing. I get terribly bored with overly adjectival writing. I get bored with writing which is unnecessarily complex and unnecessarily descriptive. You can hardly get a more lean writer than R K Narayan. And again he is writing about very ordinary people. There is nothing sensational, heroic or deeply tragic about his writing. Of course it is very sensitive and understanding, but there is nothing of the grimness which there is in so much of the writing about India. [source]

99

Where the Lost Wander: A Novel

Amy Harmon

4.0

In 'WHERE THE LOST WANDER', an epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a h

100

An Equal Music

Vikram Seth

4.0

The author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy returns with a powerful and deeply romantic tale of two gifted musicians. Michael Holme is a violinist, a member of the successful Maggiore Quartet. He has long been haunted, though, by memories of the pianist he loved and left ten years earlier, Julia McNicholl. Now Julia, married and the mother of a small child, unexpectedly reenters his