Novels from Indian Authors

Thursday, April 2, 2009 – 8:32 pm

Q and A by Vikas Swarup, the book upon which the Academy Award winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire” was based, has a short waiting list. Here are half a dozen more novels by Indian writers that you might want to try.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is a sprawling multi-generational story about a Hindu family in 1950 India trying to find a suitable husband for their daughter.

The language in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is as lush as the landscape of Kerala, the southernmost state in India, in which this family drama takes place.

Written in the mid-fifties, Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya is a poignant portrait of a peasant woman finding solace and joy amidst the tragedies and disappointments of her life.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, set in the heyday of the British Raj, tells the amazing life stories of half a dozen or so people whose destinies come together on a ship bound for the Seychelle Islands.

Oprah picked A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry for her book club.  Set in 1975 in a city by the sea, it is the story of four strangers who are forced to live together in a small apartment during the nerve-wracking time of a national emergency.

In Padma Viswanathan’s The Toss of a Lemon a young Brahmin widow shocks her orthodox family by moving back into her husband’s house. This decision has ramifications for generations to come.