Its been a while since I read anything by a South Asian author. In the past decade of very sparse reading I have enjoyed the following.
Everest Hotel - Allan Sealy
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid
a few of Rohinton Mistry
a few by Amitav Ghosh
Would appreciate some recommendations. Hanif Mohammad? Hari Kunzru? Chitra Divakurni? Any good?
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one my favorites. Read quite a few of hers and have loved her style. Another write I enjoy is Khaled Hosseini.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Not much into book reading. My patience just sublimes. But somehow I read this book a couple of weeks ago "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga and loved the author's ferocious thoughts.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Its been a while since I read anything by a South Asian author. In the past decade of very sparse reading I have enjoyed the following.
Everest Hotel - Allan Sealy Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid a few of Rohinton Mistry a few by Amitav Ghosh
Would appreciate some recommendations. Hanif Mohammad? Hari Kunzru? Chitra Divakurni? Any good?
Hanif Muhamamd's 'A case of exploding mangoes' is a good read.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Brick Lane - Monica Ali
Maps to Lost Lovers - Aslam
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
This is one of my favorite genres.
I really enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri's second book "Unaccustomed Earth"...her third and newest "The Lowland" was good too. I second Muniya's suggestion of "Brick Lane".
More from my bookshelves:
A Suitable Boy- Vikram Seth
The Age of Shiva- Manil Suri
The Death of Vishnu- Manil Suri
If you like historical fiction about the Mughal era:
The Feast of Roses and The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
The World Unseen- Shamim Sarif
A Singular Hostage- Thalasia Ali
I'm forgetting some, I've recently loaned out some books so I'll update later.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Have read lahiri Hosseeini Bhagat. Hosseini best. Lahiri also good. Bhsgat time pass. Msight check out others identified by socialite and spelling champ.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Kamila shamsie.., salt and saffron.
All of bapsi sidhwa's work
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
I could never finish a Suitable Boy -- people swear by that book I could never get into it.
I really really loved A Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh --- quick short read. A little bit of history.. maybe a good read for a rainy day.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
you know once I read this book called "bano ky ishaq meen"
I never read more wonderful crime(investigation) stories.
All stories written in rural background, murder investigations by an ex police man.
I wish you could read urdu. I would have been a treat.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
I could never finish a Suitable Boy -- people swear by that book I could never get into it.
I really really loved A Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh --- quick short read. A little bit of history.. maybe a good read for a rainy day.
I think queer will enjoy 'Delhi' by Khushwant Singh more than Train to Pakistan. Delhi is all about city's history with some interesting characters.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Also go through these short stories by Amar Jaleel (originally written in Sindhi)
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
I'd love to read Dehli as well. Sounds so interesting.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss *that won the 2006 Man Booker Prize is a good read. Not necessarily a light, 'feel good' novel so to speak but it's beautifully written. If you liked *The God of Small Things, you'd probably enjoy reading this too.
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri is quite a nice ode to the incredible success of Indian-Americans and overall a very good collection of short stories.
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Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
You noticed so much of south asian lit is depressing.
And it seems the more depressing/dark it is the more awards it seems to win.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
muniya, i've tried to read "a suitable boy" half a dozen times in the last 15 yrs. its too hard for me. -___-
i find south asian lit more nostalgic than straight-out depressing.
monk, maybe one day man.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
You noticed so much of south asian lit is depressing. And it seems the more depressing/dark it is the more awards it seems to win.
what about that novel on which drama Talkhiyan was made. I think it was 'god of small things'. so depressing.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
muniya, i've tried to read "a suitable boy" half a dozen times in the last 15 yrs. its too hard for me. -___-
i find south asian lit more nostalgic than straight-out depressing.
monk, maybe one day man.
Have you read Gulzar? some of his short stories have recently been translated into English, but I think you can read Hindi. so go for original language, if you haven't already.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
thanks, muqawwee. i'm not sure i am artsy enough for gulzar's works though, but who knows. i'll keep an eye out. last time i read a hindi book was nearly 20 years ago though..
pretty good recommendations so far, folks. thanks.
Re: Contemporary South-Asian Lit. recommendations
Na karo! I didn’t know that. Now I have to watch Talkhiyan.
What a proper name for it though - sali book was very Talkh.