RAG Demo

Tag: 2010s

  • Tomb of Sand

    After her husband's death, Ma, an elderly woman in a north Indian family, takes to her bed and turns her back on the household gathered around her. When she finally rises, it is as a changed person: playful, unpredictable and keen to do things her family never imagined, including moving in with her unconventional daughter, Beti, a writer who lives independently.

    Ma's new friendship with Rosie, a hijra, adds to the family's confusion, and her desire to cross the border into Pakistan leads her back to a past from the time of Partition that she has never spoken about. Beti, who has always been the free one, finds herself watching her mother outdo her in rebellion.

    Originally published in Hindi as Ret Samadhi, the novel is playful and digressive, with talking crows, puns and stories within stories. Daisy Rockwell's translation won the International Booker Prize in 2022, the first time the award went to a book translated from an Indian language.

    Book details

    AuthorGeetanjali Shree
    First published2018
    Original languageHindi
    Translated byDaisy Rockwell
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    SettingDelhi and northern India, and Pakistan, present day
    AwardsInternational Booker Prize 2022

    Themes

    • Old age and renewal
    • Mothers and daughters
    • Partition memory
    • Borders
    • Gender

    Who should read it

    Adventurous readers who enjoy playful, experimental prose and stories about women reclaiming their lives.

    If you liked this, try

    • Ghachar Ghochar
    • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
    • Train to Pakistan

  • Ghachar Ghochar

    The narrator, an unnamed young man in Bangalore, spends his afternoons at a coffee house watching the world and taking advice from a waiter named Vincent. He lives with his parents, his sister Malati and his uncle Chikkappa, whose spice trading business lifted the family from a cramped, ant-infested rented house into a bigger home and an easy life.

    The narrator nominally works for the business but does nothing; the family depends on Chikkappa and protects him fiercely. When the narrator marries Anita, a woman with firm principles who refuses to accept how things are done, her presence exposes the family's moral compromises and the quiet menace that holds it together.

    Vivek Shanbhag's novella, originally written in Kannada and translated into English by Srinath Perur, is short, wry and precise, with tension built from small domestic details. It drew international praise when it appeared in the UK and US in 2017, and its title is a made-up phrase for something hopelessly entangled.

    Book details

    AuthorVivek Shanbhag
    First published2013
    Original languageKannada
    Translated bySrinath Perur
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)118
    SettingBangalore, early 21st century

    Themes

    • Money and morality
    • Family loyalty
    • Class mobility
    • Complicity
    • Marriage

    Who should read it

    Readers who like short, unsettling literary fiction about how money reshapes a family.

    If you liked this, try

    • Tomb of Sand
    • The White Tiger
    • Em and the Big Hoom

  • Em and the Big Hoom

    The unnamed narrator lives with his sister Susan and their parents in a cramped flat in Mahim, Bombay. His mother Imelda, called Em, smokes beedis, swears inventively and talks with startling candour, and she lives with bipolar disorder that sends her into periods of mania and despair, including attempts on her own life. His father Augustine, the Big Hoom, is calm, reliable and quietly devoted.

    Through Em's letters, diaries and long conversations with her son, the novel pieces together how Em and the Big Hoom met and married in the 1950s and how the family lives around her illness, with hospital visits, neighbours' gossip and endless cups of tea. Humour sits right beside sorrow on every page.

    Jerry Pinto drew on his own family history, and the book is admired for its honesty about mental illness and its love for its characters. It won The Hindu Literary Prize and the Crossword Book Award and has been translated into several languages. It is short and quickly read.

    Book details

    AuthorJerry Pinto
    First published2012
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)240
    SettingMahim, Bombay, 1950s to 1990s
    AwardsThe Hindu Literary Prize 2013

    Themes

    • Mental illness
    • Family love
    • Caregiving
    • Humour and grief
    • Marriage

    Who should read it

    Readers who appreciate warm, honest writing about families living with mental illness.

    If you liked this, try

    • Family Matters
    • The English Teacher
    • Ghachar Ghochar

  • Ram: Scion of Ikshvaku

    The first book of the Ram Chandra Series begins with Ram's birth on the day his father Dashrath loses a battle to Raavan, a coincidence that makes the king and much of Ayodhya treat the boy as a bad omen. Raised in the shadow of that defeat, Ram grows into a serious young man devoted to law, convinced that society can only be saved by applying rules equally to everyone.

    Trained by the sage Vashishtha alongside his brothers Bharat, Lakshman and Shatrughan, Ram gains popularity by enforcing justice in the city, but palace politics lead to his fourteen-year exile with Lakshman and Sita. Amish presents Sita as a capable warrior and administrator, and their story unfolds alongside the growing threat of Raavan's Lanka.

    The book uses a multilinear structure, with later volumes following Sita and Raavan's paths up to the same moment. It brings the Shiva Trilogy's style to the Ramayana, debating ideas of governance and masculine and feminine ways of life. Readers expecting the devotional tone of traditional versions should know that Amish takes liberties with the source.

    Book details

    AuthorAmish Tripathi
    First published2015
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreMythology
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)354
    SettingAyodhya, Mithila and the Dandakaranya forest, ancient India around 3400 BC

    Themes

    • Law and justice
    • Leadership
    • Exile
    • Duty
    • Governance

    Who should read it

    Readers who want a fresh, action-driven retelling of the Ramayana with a political edge.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Immortals of Meluha
    • The Palace of Illusions
    • Asura: Tale of the Vanquished

  • The Oath of the Vayuputras

    The third book brings Shiva to the heart of the mystery he has been chasing: what the real evil of his age is, and who has been protecting it. His search takes him to Pariha, home of the Vayuputras, a secretive tribe of the previous Mahadev's followers, whose oath and knowledge prove crucial to the choices ahead.

    With the kingdoms of India dividing into alliances, the novel turns into a war story of sieges, naval battles and political deals, while also exploring Shiva's relationships with Sati, Ganesh, Kartik and the Naga queen Kali. Amish uses the conflict to question whether a resource that benefits some can be justified by the harm it does to others.

    This is the longest book of the trilogy and closes the saga that made its author famous. Readers new to the series should start with The Immortals of Meluha, as the plot depends heavily on the earlier books. It ties together threads from all three books, sometimes at length.

    Book details

    AuthorAmish Tripathi
    First published2013
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreMythology
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)565
    SettingMeluha, Swadweep, Pariha and Devagiri, ancient India around 1900 BC

    Themes

    • War and its cost
    • Nature of evil
    • Sacrifice
    • Environmental harm
    • Duty

    Who should read it

    Fans of the first two Shiva books who want the epic conclusion.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Secret of the Nagas
    • The Immortals of Meluha
    • Ram: Scion of Ikshvaku

  • The Secret of the Nagas

    The second book of the Shiva Trilogy picks up immediately after the first, with Shiva determined to find the masked Naga who attacked Sati. The search takes him and his companions beyond Meluha to Kashi, a city of tolerance on the Ganga, and to Branga, a kingdom desperate for a medicine that only the Nagas seem able to supply.

    Along the way Shiva learns that the Nagas are not the monsters he was told about, and he encounters figures who will transform his understanding of his family, including the fierce Naga queen Kali and a young warrior named Ganesh. Battles with pirates, a plague and political betrayals keep the plot moving quickly.

    Amish expands his world with new kingdoms and philosophies, asking whether evil is a people or a force. The novel ends on a revelation that sets up the final volume, and like its predecessor it sold in huge numbers across India. Its pace rarely slows.

    Book details

    AuthorAmish Tripathi
    First published2011
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreMythology
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)396
    SettingKashi, Branga, Panchavati and the Narmada region, ancient India around 1900 BC

    Themes

    • Prejudice
    • Family secrets
    • Nature of evil
    • Loyalty
    • Destiny

    Who should read it

    Readers who enjoyed The Immortals of Meluha and want to see the Shiva saga widen.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Immortals of Meluha
    • The Oath of the Vayuputras
    • Asura: Tale of the Vanquished

  • 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.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Secret of the Nagas
    • Ram: Scion of Ikshvaku
    • The Palace of Illusions

  • Gun Island

    Deen Datta, a middle-aged Bengali dealer in rare books who divides his time between Brooklyn and Calcutta, hears on a visit home about a shrine in the Sundarbans tied to the legend of the Gun Merchant, a trader who tried to escape the wrath of Manasa Devi, goddess of snakes. A skeptic by temperament, he agrees to visit, and an unsettling encounter there starts a chain of coincidences.

    His search takes him to wildfire-threatened Los Angeles and to Venice, where Bangladeshi migrants work in the tourist trade. Along the way he meets Piya Roy from The Hungry Tide, a young Sundarbans boy named Tipu, a Venetian historian called Cinta, and a migrant named Rafi, and he begins to see the old myth as an account of displacement driven by a changing climate.

    The novel deliberately strains realism, turning to the uncanny to talk about a world where extreme weather seems to follow its own plot. It complements Ghosh's nonfiction book The Great Derangement, which argued that fiction has largely failed to confront climate change. Its mix of travelogue and parable may frustrate readers who want tight realism.

    Book details

    AuthorAmitav Ghosh
    First published2019
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)312
    SettingCalcutta, the Sundarbans, Los Angeles and Venice, late 2010s

    Themes

    • Climate change
    • Migration
    • Myth and modernity
    • Coincidence
    • Human trafficking

    Who should read it

    Readers looking for climate fiction that blends folklore, travel and the refugee crisis.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Hungry Tide
    • The Overstory
    • Sea of Poppies

  • The Lowland

    Subhash and Udayan Mitra are born fifteen months apart in Tollygunge, a south Calcutta neighbourhood bordered by two ponds and a stretch of flood-prone land. Inseparable as boys, they diverge in the late 1960s: Udayan, charismatic and impatient, is drawn into the Maoist-inspired Naxalite uprising, while the cautious Subhash goes to Rhode Island to study oceanography.

    Udayan marries Gauri, a philosophy student with her own fierce intelligence, without his parents' blessing. When political violence reaches the family, Subhash makes a choice meant as rescue that binds him, Gauri and a child to one another in ways none of them can fully accept. The novel then follows its characters across fifty years and two continents.

    Lahiri's prose is calm and closely observed, and she lets long time spans reveal how a single event goes on shaping lives. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the US National Book Award, and it won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

    Book details

    AuthorJhumpa Lahiri
    First published2013
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)340
    SettingTollygunge, Calcutta and coastal Rhode Island, 1950s to 2010s
    AwardsDSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015

    Themes

    • Brotherhood
    • Political radicalism
    • Motherhood
    • Guilt
    • Exile

    Who should read it

    Readers who like slow-burning family novels that trace one choice across generations.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Namesake
    • The Shadow Lines
    • Sister of My Heart

  • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

    Twenty years after her debut, Arundhati Roy returned to fiction with a sprawling novel that begins in Old Delhi. Anjum, born intersex and raised as a boy named Aftab, leaves her family to live in the Khwabgah, a house of hijras, and later settles among the graves of a Muslim cemetery, where she gradually builds a refuge for people the city has pushed out.

    A second strand belongs to Tilottama, an elusive architecture student, and the three men who love her: a journalist, an intelligence officer and a Kashmiri who becomes a militant. Through them the book enters the violence of the Kashmir valley, with its checkpoints, torture centres and disappeared sons, and the two narratives slowly converge around an abandoned baby.

    The novel is restless and openly political, folding in the 2002 Gujarat riots, the anti-corruption protests at Jantar Mantar and Maoist insurgency in central India. Some readers find it diffuse, but its compassion for misfits and its refusal to look away from state violence make it a deliberate counterpoint to tidier portraits of modern India.

    Book details

    AuthorArundhati Roy
    First published2017
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)445
    SettingDelhi and the Kashmir valley, 1950s to 2010s

    Themes

    • Gender identity
    • Kashmir conflict
    • Outsiders and belonging
    • State violence
    • Religious nationalism

    Who should read it

    Readers who want a politically charged, many-voiced novel about the people left out of India's success story.

    If you liked this, try

    • The God of Small Things
    • Delhi: A Novel
    • Midnight's Children