Books by Indian authors are severely underrated. Just like India’s culture, language, and food, even the Indian literary landscape is quite diverse. From timeless classics to bold contemporary narratives, popular Indian writers have carved a powerful space in global literature. And if you are on a quest to find some deeply satisfying books that can move and inspire you, here are some mind-blowing picks you should consider:
1. Novoneel Chakraborty’s The Best Couple Ever
With growing social media addiction, this pagescape follows the reality behind such facades. With a female-led POV, this reads like a proper punch to the gut. The book has you in the throes of confusion, suspense, romance, and just enough thrill to read in a single sitting. Mumbai’s Chakraborty implores the illusion of perfect lives. Readers claim this is one among the easily terrifying literary fictions.
2. Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me
We can never miss Arundhati Roy when we talk about award-winning Indian authors. Her unflinching memoir explores the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship. Journeying from childhood, Roy’s work reads like an ode to tough love, ferocious glory, and less-than-quiet need for freedom.
Mapping Kerala and New Delhi, her words have the ability to make you laugh and cry. In response to her mother’s death (in 2022), it has joined the ranks of must-read Indian novels.
3. Girl in White Cotton/Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Family dynamics in Indian storytelling are always fascinating. Doshi has managed to capture its zest even from Dubai. Tara is losing her memory. In its wake, her daughter Antara tries to make peace with the past.
Antara has never understood Tara, yet she realizes that they might not be different after all. Subjectivity of truth in the face of elusive memories operates at the core of this unsettling debut. Pick this top among international bestsellers now!
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4. I Hear You by Nidhi Upadhyay
Here is a product of future-alteration efforts meeting crime thrillers. Mahika’s baby is like no other. Born to Shivam, a geneticist for a father, Rudra is the world’s first genetically-altered foetus. He was only supposed to save the marriage.
Except his mother finds out the truth about the pregnancy being a scientific quest. Now, he has to liberate his mother and betray his father. You won’t see what this Mumbai-Singaporean author has coming for you!
5. Acts of God by Kanan Gill
For an unserious story about the most serious question: What does being human mean? Genius Dr. K is playing God. He is working on an illegal project of simulating universes to cater to his whims, and destroying them otherwise.
Private detective P. Manjunath is the last person he would consider as a spanner in the works. This highly entertaining plot will have you belly-aching. With audacious inventions and simple delivery, Mumbai-based Gill follows Douglas Adams’s footsteps into (silly) sci-fi.
6. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss
Delhi-Brooklyn’s Desai, one of the popular Indian writers, attempts the consequences of the East-West divide through historical fiction. This novel explores themes of colonialism and modernity. Painting vivid landscapes of Kalimpong and New York, it follows the juxtaposed lives of an old judge and his cook’s son, Biju. This image of globalization against the clashing backdrop of the American dream captures the novel’s core.
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7. Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies
Lahiri operates between New York and Rome, both of which enrich her capacity in powerful storytelling. Interpreter of Maladies is one among the nine short stories in this collection. Moving characters with ease from Boston to Bengal, Lahiri’s stories are full of exile and loss.
Following that tragic lyrical note, this story traces an interpreter guiding an American family through their Indian ancestry and a surprising confession. Where origin affects one’s circumstances, the characters will still leave you with hope.
8. Shujoy Dutta’s Like a Pinprick to the Heart
Gurgaon’s Dutta brings authentic Bengali flavor. Anando Sen is part of a highly spiritual family. It comes as no surprise that he can foretell futures. On the journey to immerse his grandmother’s ashes, he stumbles upon the family’s ultimate secret.
On the banks of the Ganga, he transforms into a godman. Thus begins this morose satire. With a fairly unpredictable plot, this is a grand contender among the best Indian fiction books.
9. Perumal Murugan’s One Part Woman
Perumal Murugan is one of the prolific authors of India with 11 books, 5 collections of short stories, and 5 poetry books to his name. In One Part Woman (shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023), features local settings in this contemporary Indian fiction. While not recommended for beginner readers, Murugan operates from a staunch position of providing the best modern Indian literature.
In his One Part Woman, Kali and Ponna’s efforts in child conception have gone in vain. Unable to endure the prolonged taunts from those who surround them, they hope for a solution. It arrives in the form of a chariot festival of the half-female god Ardhanareeswara. Except it would also mean testing their marriage. With clashing personal apprehensions and the social norm, this plot offers a vividly discomfitting portrait.
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10. Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand
Do not feel discouraged by the sheer volume of Geetanjali Shree’s giant tome. Operating from the chaos of New Delhi, she traces the wounds of the Partition through the eyes of a depressed 80-year-old woman.
On their trip back to Pakistan, the old woman and her daughter reevaluate what it means to be who they are. Joyful wordplay in the face of tragedy will keep the pages turning. Shree’s words achieve the marks of classic Indian fiction in this original tale of protest and the exceeding need for human connection.
11. Sujata Massey’s The Sleeping Dictionary
From Baltimore, Massey’s Perveen Mistry series gained a lot of popularity. Preceding it, The Sleeping Dictionary follows Pom, who leaves her life in Bengal in the wake of a tsunami. When life lands her in Calcutta, she is Sarah-turned-Kamala, rewriting her life again.
Although her new life is rich, she cannot escape her past. In the light of India’s imperial battle and her own misfortunes, will she brave the fight for her country and her own happiness?
12. Alka Joshi’s The Henna Artist
Writing from California, Joshi’s The Jaipur Trilogy quickly made its way among the best novels by Indian authors. A Reese’s book club pick, it delves into what it takes to build a life, out of sheer perseverance. While it addresses the philosophy of being human, it also considers a post-independence take on identity and class.
17-year-old Lakshmi managed to escape from her abusive marriage. Cue 1950s Jaipur, she has inserted herself into the vibrant scenes of the wealthy upper-class as an established henna artist. Treading the delicate lines between that society and the dark underside she cannot reveal, she faces an upheaval. Confronting her husband, and a sister she hadn’t known of, will her carefully curated life hold?
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13. Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
Anappara’s novel from the UK’s Essex wears a crime/mystery thriller front. Drawing on real-life incidents from metropolitan India, it follows nine-year-old Jai’s need to use his TV-show induced crime-solving skills to trace the missing children in his neighborhood. Following this game, it soon turns into a sinister nightmare with terrified parents, indifferent police, and soul-snatching djinns.
Addressing the horror and tragedy of missing children in the face of an apathetic society, Anappara’s plot cultivates a loss of innocence. Especially tracing the living situation, she brings to light the unsuitable environs of the grim realities where children are forced to “grow up.”
Revisiting the lore of the djinns, her plot weaves superstitions and communal tensions. This deserves a place among underrated books by Indian authors.
14. Thrity Umrigar’s Honor
Wading through the archaic nodes of life, two women’s stories converge. Smita, who vowed never to return to India, is an Indian-American journalist filling in for a friend. The assignment leads her to Meena, a Hindu woman who married a Muslim man. When the journalist sets out to bring the truth of the interfaith marriage, she is met with much dishonor and prejudice.
Mired in ignorance and hatred, Honor is a no-nonsense view into rural India’s treatment of women. Umrigar had written it based on an article she’d read in the New York Times. Out of all the Indian novels to read, this one is a must-read.
15. Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance
India-born Canadian author Mistry’s sweeping narrative follows in Dickens’ footsteps. Revered among the literary masterpieces from India, it attempts to hold corruption and dignity in the same hand. A Fine Balance is an unputdownable, grim, tragicomedy. This larger-than-life novel cannot be confined to its criticisms.
In 1975, the State of Emergency uproots the lives of four strangers: a widow, a student, and two tailors. Sharing one cramped apartment space and uncertainty for the future, will their endurance be marked regardless of inhumanity? Where shattered dreams and cruelty intersect, man’s survival instincts shine through.
Honorable mentions:
- Vaseem Khan’s The Malabar Hill series
- Abir Mukherjee’s Wyndham-Banerjee series
- Saumya Dave’s Well-Behaved Indian Women
- Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens
- Tashan Mehta’s Mad Sisters of Esi
If you like some light reading, you can also pick up books by Chetan Bhagat or Ravinder Singh.
Conclusion
This is a small curation of noteworthy books by Indian authors you should consider reading. In such a vast (reading) sea, there is only one drop to drink at a time. Start here, and you will learn to quench thirst!
