Indian literary fiction: books for grown-ups

From the Bookbear grown-ups' shelf: 16 books on indian literary fiction, chosen for curious, conscious parents.

1. Midnight's Children

   Midnight's Children

   by Salman Rushdie

   AdultsIndian author

   Booker-winning novel of Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of India's independence and magically linked to the nation.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹419 ↗

2. The Inheritance of Loss

   The Inheritance of Loss

   by Kiran Desai

   AdultsIndian author

   Booker-winning novel set in Kalimpong and New York, about migration, class and colonial hangovers.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹713 ↗

3. The Shadow Lines

   The Shadow Lines

   by Amitav Ghosh

   AdultsIndian author

   A family across Calcutta, Dhaka and London, and the borders and riots that divide them.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹243 ↗

4. The Hungry Tide

   The Hungry Tide

   by Amitav Ghosh

   AdultsIndian author

   A translator and a marine biologist in the Sundarbans, where tigers, tides and refugees collide.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹363 ↗

5. Tomb of Sand

   Tomb of Sand

   by Geetanjali Shree

   AdultsIndian author

   International Booker-winning Hindi novel of an 80-year-old widow who travels to Pakistan to face her Partition past. Translated by Daisy Rockwell.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹464 ↗

6. Ghachar Ghochar

   Ghachar Ghochar

   by Vivek Shanbhag

   AdultsIndian author

   A Bengaluru family's sudden wealth quietly corrupts them. Translated by Srinath Perur.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹224 ↗

7. Em and the Big Hoom

   Em and the Big Hoom

   by Jerry Pinto

   AdultsIndian author

   A Goan Catholic family in Mumbai living with a mother's bipolar disorder, told with humour and love.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹351 ↗

8. Hangwoman

   Hangwoman

   by K.R. Meera

   AdultsIndian author

   Chetna, from a family of hangmen, becomes India's first woman executioner. Translated by J. Devika.

   Heads-up: Violence

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹404 ↗

9. The Namesake

   The Namesake

   by Jhumpa Lahiri

   AdultsIndian author

   A Bengali-American son named after a Russian writer grows up between two cultures.

   Buy on Amazon.in · ₹379 ↗

10. Interpreter of Maladies

    Interpreter of Maladies

    by Jhumpa Lahiri

    AdultsIndian author

    Pulitzer-winning stories of Indians and Indian Americans caught between cultures.

    Buy on Amazon.in · ₹293 ↗

11. A Suitable Boy

    A Suitable Boy

    by Vikram Seth

    AdultsIndian author

    A mother's search for a husband for her daughter, set against 1950s India's politics and Hindu–Muslim tensions.

    Buy on Amazon.in · ₹1,428 ↗

12. Train to Pakistan

    Train to Pakistan

    by Khushwant Singh

    AdultsIndian author

    A Punjab border village where Sikhs and Muslims have lived in peace until the trains of Partition arrive.

    Heads-up: Violence

    Buy on Amazon.in · ₹199 ↗

13. Clear Light of Day

    Clear Light of Day

    by Anita Desai

    AdultsIndian author

    Siblings in Old Delhi revisit childhood and Partition-era wounds in one hot summer.

    Buy on Amazon.in · ₹236 ↗

14. The White Tiger

    The White Tiger

    by Aravind Adiga

    AdultsIndian author

    Booker-winning dark comedy of a driver from a poor village who escapes servitude by any means.

    Heads-up: Crime & murder

    Buy on Amazon.in · ₹282 ↗

15. The Last of Earth

    The Last of Earth

    by Deepa Anappara

    AdultsIndian author

    In 1869, Balram, an Indian schoolteacher trained by the British as a surveyor-spy, crosses into closed Tibet hoping to find his missing friend. His path crosses that of Katherine, an Englishwoman determined to reach Lhasa.

    Buy on Amazon.in ↗

16. Water Days

    Water Days

    by Sundar Sarukkai

    AdultsIndian author

    In late-1990s Bangalore, a young girl's death sets a neighbourhood talking. Former security guard Raghavendra is asked by his wife to find out what happened, in a city changing fast around its migrants and languages.

    Heads-up: Death & grief

    Buy on Amazon.in ↗