INDIA: GENERAL

“India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps…the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.” ~Mark Twain, Following the Equator.

NONFICTION

Gandhi An Autobiography of Gandhi: the Story of My Experiments with Truth, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mohandas K. Gandhi, 1927 — Not a literary book, or a fulsome objective biography, but an excellent insight into Gandhi, the man.

Desert Places, Robyn Davidson, 1996 — A fascinating travelogue about following nomadic tribes in India on their annual trek across the desert.

Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices, Chitrita Banerji, 2007—In this culinary-cum-cultural history, a talented food writer (and Calcutta native) explores the mingling of old and new in cuisine across the subcontinent.

The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia, Paul Theroux, 1995 — The famed travel writer’s descriptive, episodic view of Asia as seen by rail will delight train-addicts as well as travelers to India.

In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, Edward Luce, 2007 — The ex-Financial Times South Asia Bureau Chief address the radical economic changes since 1991, and its roots in Indian culture, with an eye to the country’s future potential to become the globe’s third largest economy.

FICTION

Burmese Days, George Orwell, 1934 — Drawing from the Animal Farm author’s years in Burma, the novel mines the comic potential arising from the day the whites-only European Club is mandated to open its doors to one, and only one, token native Burmese.

A Passage to India, E.M. Forster, 1924 — Set against the 1920’s Indian independence movement, Forster’s crisp, insightful novel – considered one of the top 100 in the English language—tells the story of Adela Quested, a young Englishwoman who enters the Marabar Caves and is changed by the experience.

The Raj Quartet, Paul Scott, 1965 – 75 — The four novels dramatize the waning years of the British Raj in India, beginning in 1942. Granada Television adapted the first, Jewel in the Crown, was made into a popular, and addictive, mini-series.

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Minstry, 1995 — The epic Dickensian novel – and Booker Prize finalist – is set in India in 1975 – 76 during the corrupt and oppressive government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy, 1999 — The stunningly beautiful novel about a Kerala family tackles themes of madness, love and death and evokes the super sensuality of India.

Journey to Ithaka, Anita Desai, 1995 — A spellbinding novel by one of a great contemporary writer who deftly unwinds a narrative while illuminating the country where she herself was born.

Kim, Rudyard Kipling, 1901 — The Jungle Book author’s famous novel traces the amazing Indian adventures of an impoverished, orphaned son of a British soldier – Kim aka Kimball O’Hara.

Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie, 1981 — The narrator’s birth at the same time India gained its independence from the British in 1947 launches this major work of magic realism, often compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

New Delhi

City of Djinns, William Dalrymple, 1993 — A travel memoir by a wonderful Scottish writer who manages to weave the history of New Delhi into his engaging adventures in the city.

Mumbai

The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri, 2001 — This debut novel follows the spiritual journey of a handyman in Mumbai and presents vivid glimpses of the modern city.

Sri Lanka

Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje, 2000 — A literary mystery about a forensic anthropologist who investigates a human rights crisis in Sri Lanka.