Ultimate Guide To Best Books By Indian Authors
January 14, 2022
India has had a tremendous history of literature, with books and stories across dozens of languages. That includes in English despite the fact that English is not our first language. Some of the most memorable works of English literature in the last century have come from Indian authors. Here we attempt to list a few books that could definitely make our libraries a lot more interesting.
The list in no way signifies an order of rank or merit. And also, we will only continue to add more titles with time.
Train To Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
Train to Pakistan is a book written by Khushwant Singh. It was published in 1956 and was first published in the United Kingdom. The book is about the partition of India and Pakistan.
The story revolves around an Indian train that leaves Delhi for Lahore on the eve of partition, carrying Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and British officials fleeing from their posts.
Train To Pakistan is a novel that deals with the pain of partition. This novel starts with an Indian train leaving Delhi for Lahore on the eve of partition, carrying Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and British officials fleeing from their posts. The story revolves around this train journey where many people are trying to find solace in each other’s company before they are divided forever by religion or nationality.
The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond is one of the most well-known authors in India. His work has been translated into many languages and has won many awards.
The Room on the Roof is one of his most famous works, which was published in 1957. The story revolves around a young girl named Rusty who lives with her grandmother in Shimla, India. Rusty spends her days roaming around Shimla and exploring different places. One day she finds a secret door to an old house near her home and decides to explore it. She goes up to the room on the roof where she meets a boy who introduces himself as John, an English boy who has been living there for years all by himself after his parents died in an accident during their vacation in Shimla.
Untouchable By Mulk Raj Anand
Untouchable is a novel written by Mulk Raj Anand. It is regarded as one of the best novels in Hindi literature. The protagonist of this novel is an Untouchable, who has been discriminated against for being a low caste person.
The novel was published in 1935 and was translated into English in 1936. It became one of the most popular novels in India and was translated into several other languages including French, German and Japanese.
The story revolves around an Untouchable named Ramu who falls in love with a Brahmin girl called Radha. Ramu’s father Lali also falls in love with Radha’s mother Parvati, but Parvati rejects him because he is an Untouchable and she belongs to the Brahmin caste.
The God of Small Things By Arundhati Roy
The novel is set in Ayemenem, a small town in the state of Kerala, on the southwest coast of India. The story centers around two young children, Rahel and Estha, who are fraternal twins. The novel explores how their lives are shaped by the political turmoil of India during the 1960s and 1970s.
This section will provide an introduction to Book 1 – The God of Small Things which is set in Ayemenem, a small town in Kerala where two young children are fraternal twins named Rahel and Estha who explore how their lives are shaped by the political turmoil during the 1960s and 1970s.
A Suitable Boy By Vikram Seth
The story is about three families in India, the Kapoors, the Mehras, and the Chatterjis. The book starts with a description of each family’s background, history and culture. The book then focuses on Lata Mehra’s life.
Lata is a young girl who has been brought up to be an ideal Indian daughter. She has been taught to be obedient, modest, and self-effacing in order to make herself attractive in her future husband’s eyes. Lata is also intelligent and she enjoys reading books. Her favorite books are Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
The book follows Lata through her life as she falls in love with a man from another caste who cannot marry
The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga
The White Tiger is an award-winning novel that was published in 2008. The book is set in India and it tells the story of Balram Halwai, an Indian entrepreneur who starts to work for a wealthy family.
The protagonist, Balram Halwai, is the narrator of the story. He tells his life story from his early childhood to adulthood. The story starts with Balram’s first job as a servant for a wealthy family in Delhi. He soon gets promoted to driver and then assistant manager of their factory. He also becomes friends with the family’s only son, Ashok, who eventually becomes his business partner and friend.
Balram’s ambition leads him to start his own enterprise but he has no formal education or capital so he resorts
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie that won the Booker Prize in 1981. It is the story of India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition, seen through the eyes of Saleem Sinai, born on the stroke of midnight, 15 August 1947.
The book was banned for many years in India but has become an important part of Indian literary culture.
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Palace of Illusions is a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The story is set in India in the early 1900s. It is about a girl named Maya who lives in an old palace with her stepmother, step sisters and stepbrothers.
Maya’s stepmother, Kamala, has grown to be beautiful and powerful after she was abandoned by her husband for another woman. She feels that Maya has grown into an ugly woman, so she decides to get rid of her through marriage. Kamala arranges for Maya to marry the King’s son, Prince Raja Ratan Sen, who is to become king one day when his father dies.
Maya agrees to the marriage because she doesn’t want to disappoint her mother-in-
Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Chanakya’s Chant is a historical fiction novel, written by Ashwin Sanghi. The story is set in India, during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. It follows the life of Chanakya, who goes on to become one of the most powerful men in Indian history.
The novel begins with Chanakya’s birth and traces his life till he becomes an adviser to Chandragupta Maurya. He starts out as a young boy at Taxila University and then goes on to become an advisor to King Dhana Nanda. The book also narrates Chanakya’s early love story with Durdhara and his friendship with Alexander the Great.
The Guide by RK Narayan
The Guide is a novel written by RK Narayan. It was published in 1958. It is about the protagonist, Raju, who leaves his home to pursue his dream of becoming a guide at the Kumbh Mela. The story of this novel revolves around the life of Raju and his adventures as he becomes a guide and learns about life and people around him.
The Guide is one of the most popular novels written by RK Narayan. It has been translated into many languages and has been adapted into films as well as TV series in different languages.
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Inheritance of Loss is a novel by Indian-born British author Kiran Desai. The novel was first published in 2006 and won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2007. The book’s protagonist, Sai, is an orphaned daughter of an Anglo-Indian father and a Tamil mother.
Sai’s father died when she was just thirteen years old. Her mother had to work long hours to support the family, which left Sai with plenty of time to think about her past and future. She remembers how her father used to take her on his boat, teaching her about life on the water, while he told stories about his own childhood in India. One day Sai decides that she will go back to India for one year before starting college at Oxford University in England.
The Shadow Lines By Amitav Ghosh
The Shadow Lines is a novel that was published in 1989. The book won the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the Prix Femina Étranger.
The Shadow Lines tells the story of three generations of an upper-middle-class Bengali family living in Calcutta. The book explores how life changes when India becomes independent from British rule in 1947.
Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat
The novel is about a student, who is a 5th grader in India, and his quest to get into IIT. The book also highlights the pressure that Indian students face from their parents and society to succeed academically.
In this section, we will be discussing the book 5 Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. This book is about a student, who is a 5th grader in India, and his quest to get into IIT. The book also highlights the pressure that Indian students face from their parents and society to succeed academically.
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Sacred Games is a novel by Vikram Chandra, published in 2006. It tells the story of Ganesh Gaitonde, a criminal overlord who is being hunted down by an investigative journalist for the Mumbai police department.
It’s one of the most popular novels in India and has been translated into 25 languages. The book won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book.
The novel was adapted into a Netflix series in 2018.
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