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Author: Abhishek

  • The Immortals of Meluha

    In 1900 BC, Shiva leads his small Guna tribe down from the slopes of Mount Kailash to Meluha, a wealthy, orderly empire of the Suryavanshis founded by Lord Ram. The Meluhans owe their long lives to the Somras, a drink of immortality, and they are struggling against terror attacks they blame on the rival Chandravanshi kingdom and a deformed people called the Nagas.

    When Shiva drinks the Somras, his throat turns blue, fulfilling the Meluhans' legend of the Neelkanth, a destroyer of evil. A reluctant hero who swears, smokes and doubts himself, he is drawn into war, falls in love with Sati, a princess bound by the empire's rules on the untouchable vikarma, and begins to question whether the line between good and evil is as clear as the Meluhans claim.

    The first book in the Shiva Trilogy reimagines a god as a historical man, mixing mythology, action and modern dialogue. It was a publishing phenomenon in India and helped create a market for mythological fiction in English. Its plain, contemporary language is part of the appeal, and Shiva's doubts make him an approachable hero.

    Book details

    AuthorAmish Tripathi
    First published2010
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreMythology
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)390
    SettingMeluha, an empire based on the Indus Valley civilisation, around 1900 BC

    Themes

    • Good versus evil
    • Destiny
    • Reluctant heroism
    • Caste and karma
    • Love

    Who should read it

    Readers who enjoy fast-paced fantasy rooted in Indian mythology and history.

  • The 3 Mistakes of My Life

    Govind Patel, a maths-loving young man from a modest Ahmedabad family, dreams of running a business. With his friends Ishaan, a cricket fanatic whose own playing career stalled, and Omi, the son of a temple priest, he opens a small cricket-goods shop in the temple compound, and the three begin coaching boys in the neighbourhood.

    They discover Ali, a Muslim boy with an extraordinary batting talent, and Ishaan becomes determined to help him reach the national team. Meanwhile Govind tutors Ishaan's sister Vidya in maths, and a secret romance begins. The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, rising political tension and the Godhra train burning of 2002 push the friends into situations that test their loyalty.

    Framed as a story Govind tells the author after a suicide attempt, the novel mixes business ambition, cricket and romance with communal violence. It was adapted into the acclaimed 2013 film Kai Po Che! It is among Bhagat's darker books, and its treatment of the riots gives it more weight than his campus comedies.

    Book details

    AuthorChetan Bhagat
    First published2008
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)258
    SettingAhmedabad, Gujarat, 2000 to 2002

    Themes

    • Friendship
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Communal violence
    • Cricket
    • Secret romance

    Who should read it

    Young readers who like fast, accessible fiction about friendship and ambition against a real backdrop.

  • 2 States

    Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan meet in the mess at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and fall in love over study sessions and late-night conversations. By graduation they want to marry, but they decide to do it properly: both families must agree, which proves harder than any entrance exam.

    Krish takes a bank job in Chennai to charm Ananya's reserved, conservative parents, tutoring her brother and arranging a concert for her father's company. Ananya, in turn, faces Krish's loud Punjabi relatives and his mother's open suspicion of South Indians, while Krish deals with his strained relationship with his father.

    Partly based on Chetan Bhagat's own marriage, the novel is a light comedy about regional stereotypes, food, language and family politics in modern India. It became a 2014 Hindi film starring Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Short chapters, wisecracking narration and family set pieces keep it moving, making it an easy holiday read.

    Book details

    AuthorChetan Bhagat
    First published2009
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreRomance
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)269
    SettingIIM Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi, 2000s

    Themes

    • Inter-community marriage
    • Cultural stereotypes
    • Family approval
    • Parents and children

    Who should read it

    Readers wanting a breezy romantic comedy about a north-south Indian love story.

  • Five Point Someone

    Hari, the narrator, and his friends Ryan and Alok enter the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi expecting success, but they quickly sink to the bottom of the class with grade averages around five out of ten. Ryan, a confident rebel, argues that the system rewards rote learning over ideas, and the three spend more time on experiments, drinking and schemes than on assignments.

    Hari falls secretly for Neha, the daughter of the strict mechanical engineering head, Professor Cherian. Alok carries the weight of a poor family relying on him, and the trio's attempts to beat the system, including a dangerous plan involving a stolen exam paper, bring consequences that test their friendship.

    Chetan Bhagat's debut, written in simple conversational English, became a best-seller among young Indian readers who rarely bought novels. It loosely inspired the 2009 film 3 Idiots and turned its author into one of the most widely read and debated writers in India. Critics often dismissed it, which only fuelled its popularity.

    Book details

    AuthorChetan Bhagat
    First published2004
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreHumour
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)270
    SettingIIT Delhi campus, late 1990s

    Themes

    • Academic pressure
    • Friendship
    • Education system
    • First love
    • Family expectations

    Who should read it

    Students and young readers who want an easy, funny campus story about surviving exam culture.

  • Shantaram

    Lin, an Australian heroin addict and armed robber, escapes from prison and flies to Bombay on a false passport in the early 1980s. A street guide named Prabaker befriends him, takes him to his home village, and helps him settle into a slum where Lin opens a free clinic for its residents and receives the name Shantaram.

    Lin falls for Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman in the expatriate crowd at Leopold's cafe, and is drawn into the circle of Abdel Khader Khan, a philosophical mafia boss. He works in currency black markets and passport forgery, survives a brutal stint in Arthur Road prison, and eventually joins a mission into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

    Gregory David Roberts drew on his own escape from an Australian prison and years in Bombay, although how much is literal remains debated. The book is long, emotional and full of aphorisms; many readers adore its love for the city, while others find it overwritten. An Apple TV+ series followed in 2022.

    Book details

    AuthorGregory David Roberts
    First published2003
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)933
    SettingBombay and a village in Maharashtra, and Afghanistan, 1980s

    Themes

    • Redemption
    • Exile and fugitive life
    • Love
    • Crime and morality
    • Friendship

    Who should read it

    Readers who want an immersive, romantic adventure through 1980s Bombay and don't mind length.

  • Sacred Games

    Sartaj Singh is a divorced, middle-aged Sikh inspector in the Mumbai police, good at his job but going nowhere. An anonymous call leads him to a bunker-like house where the notorious gang lord Ganesh Gaitonde has holed up, and the confrontation leaves Sartaj with a set of questions that pull him into an investigation spanning intelligence agencies, gurus and terror networks.

    Alternating chapters are Gaitonde's own story, narrated in a swaggering voice as he rises from a petty smuggler to a criminal empire builder with links to politicians and Bollywood. Interludes, called Insets, step away to tell unrelated lives across the subcontinent, from Partition refugees to a Kashmiri agent.

    At around 900 pages, Vikram Chandra's novel is crime fiction on an epic scale, saturated with Bombay slang and the texture of the city's police stations, slums and film sets. It was adapted as India's first Netflix original series in 2018. Its sheer length is part of the experience.

    Book details

    AuthorVikram Chandra
    First published2006
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreThriller
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)900
    SettingMumbai, with episodes across India and abroad, 1940s to early 2000s

    Themes

    • Organised crime
    • Police corruption
    • Religious extremism
    • Masculinity
    • The city

    Who should read it

    Readers who love sprawling crime epics and want an inside view of Mumbai's underworld.

  • Cuckold

    The narrator is the Maharaj Kumar, heir to the throne of Mewar in Rajasthan in the early 1500s. His new wife, a young princess, declares that she is already married to the god Krishna and spends her days singing devotional songs. The prince is publicly mocked as a man cuckolded by a god, and he is privately consumed by jealousy, curiosity and an odd tenderness.

    Alongside the marriage, the prince deals with palace intrigue among his father Rana Sanga's many wives and sons, invents new military tactics and administrative reforms, and watches the rise of Babur in the north. His voice is modern in its scepticism and wit, making the historical setting feel startlingly immediate.

    Kiran Nagarkar's novel reimagines the life of the husband of the poet-saint Mirabai, a figure history barely records. Long and richly detailed, it won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2001 and is admired for turning legend into a psychological drama about faith, power and love.

    Book details

    AuthorKiran Nagarkar
    First published1997
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreHistorical fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)610
    SettingChittor and the kingdom of Mewar, Rajasthan, early 16th century
    AwardsSahitya Akademi Award 2001

    Themes

    • Devotion and desire
    • Jealousy
    • Statecraft and war
    • Masculinity
    • Faith

    Who should read it

    Readers who like intelligent historical fiction told by a witty, troubled narrator.

  • Fire on the Mountain

    After a lifetime as the dutiful wife of a university vice-chancellor and mother of many children, Nanda Kaul has retreated to Carignano, an isolated house on a ridge in Kasauli. She wants nothing more than to be left alone with the pines and the view, and she resents any letter or visitor that might pull her back into obligation.

    Then her great-granddaughter Raka is sent to recover from typhoid and a troubled home. To Nanda's surprise, the child wants no attention at all and spends her days roaming ravines and burnt hillsides. Nanda finds herself trying to win the girl over with invented stories, while Ila Das, a childhood friend reduced to poverty, brings news of the dangers of the world below.

    Short and intense, the novel is a study of solitude, female lives and the pretences people build to survive them. It won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and the Sahitya Akademi Award, and its quiet build-up gives way to a powerful, unsettling conclusion best discovered without warning.

    Book details

    AuthorAnita Desai
    First published1977
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)145
    SettingCarignano, a house in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, 1970s
    AwardsWinifred Holtby Memorial Prize 1978, Sahitya Akademi Award 1978

    Themes

    • Solitude
    • Women's lives
    • Old age and childhood
    • Illusion
    • Loneliness

    Who should read it

    Readers who enjoy short, psychologically intense novels about women and solitude.

  • Clear Light of Day

    Tara, married to a diplomat and living abroad, returns with her family for a summer visit to the house in Old Delhi where she grew up. Her elder sister Bim still lives there, teaching history at a college and caring for their brother Baba, who has an intellectual disability and spends his days listening to old records.

    The novel moves back to the 1940s, when the siblings' parents were distant, an aunt raised them, and their brother Raja, a lover of Urdu poetry, fell ill and later left for Hyderabad to marry into a Muslim family. Bim has never quite forgiven him, and the story slowly uncovers how each sibling remembers those years differently.

    Anita Desai's prose is precise and luminous, alive to heat, gardens and the slow decay of a house. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1980, it is often regarded as her finest novel, a study of time, family loyalty and forgiveness set against the upheaval of 1947.

    Book details

    AuthorAnita Desai
    First published1980
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)183
    SettingOld Delhi, the 1940s and the 1970s

    Themes

    • Sisterhood
    • Memory and time
    • Forgiveness
    • Partition
    • Duty

    Who should read it

    Readers who appreciate introspective family novels with exquisite, atmospheric prose.

  • Kanthapura

    Kanthapura is a hillside village in the Kara district of South India, close to a British-owned coffee estate. Its story is told by Achakka, an elderly Brahmin widow, in the manner of a sthala-purana, the traditional legend of a place, so village gods, gossip and politics flow together in one breathless voice.

    The change begins when Moorthy, a young Brahmin who has returned from the city as a follower of Gandhi, starts spinning khadi, mixing with Pariahs and urging the villagers to join the non-cooperation movement. Opposition comes from the orthodox priest, the British-backed police and the estate's managers, and the women of the village, led by the widow Rangamma, become central to the resistance.

    Published in 1938, Raja Rao's first novel is famous for its preface, which argued that Indians must write English in a rhythm of their own. Its long, comma-strung sentences imitate oral storytelling, and it remains a key novel of the freedom struggle seen from below.

    Book details

    AuthorRaja Rao
    First published1938
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreClassic
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)240
    SettingKanthapura, a village in Karnataka (Mysore region), early 1930s

    Themes

    • Gandhian movement
    • Caste reform
    • Women's resistance
    • Village life
    • Colonial oppression

    Who should read it

    Readers interested in how the freedom movement transformed rural India, told in a distinctive oral style.