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From the cultural splendour of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur to the glamour of Bollywood, India is a fascinating place. It’s the world’s most populous country and there’s no better way to learn about its diverse culture and complex history than to read about it.
India has a long and distinguished literary record. The country’s first written works date as far back as 1500BC and its oral tradition is even older than that.
Centuries on, India’s literary culture is flourishing – as shown by the impressive number of Indian novelists who have won the Booker Prize over the past 50 years.
These include Arundhati Roy, the author of The God of Small Things, Aravind Adiga, who wrote The White Tiger, and Kiran Desai, the author of The Inheritance of Loss. Salman Rushdie, who was born in India but is a British citizen, won the 1981 Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children.
How we tested
We’ve chosen a mix of classics from years gone by and contemporary novels that portray modern-day life in India. Our main criteria was that the novels should be original, compelling and superbly written – the kind of books that convey the country’s distinctive culture in literary form.
Some of our choices, such as Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, shine a light on times of political upheaval, while books like The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota, relay the struggles of migrant workers who leave India and cross the world to look for work. In other words, there’s something to suit all literary tastes.
