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Recommendations based on River of Smokeby Amitav Ghosh
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Sea of Poppies
by Amitav Ghosh
A colorful adventure across the Indian Ocean, bringing together a diverse ensemble of characters.
At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial ... (Goodreads)
The Hungry Tide
by Amitav Ghosh
A story of love, loss, and discovery set in the Sundarbans region of India.
Off the easternmost corner of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans, where settlers live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. ... (Goodreads)
The Glass Palace
by Amitav Ghosh
Epic tale of a family's journey through Burma, India, and Malaya during the British colonization.
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create ... (Goodreads)
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy
A moving story of two siblings growing up in India, exploring love, politics, and class.
The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car ... (Goodreads)
And the Mountains Echoed
by Khaled Hosseini
Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.
The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)
A Suitable Boy
by Vikram Seth
Epic story of a young woman's search for love and her family's struggle for acceptance in 1950s India.
In 1951, 19-year-old Lata Mehra attends the wedding of her older sister, Savita, to Pran Kapoor, a university lecturer. Lata’s mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, says that it is time for Lata to be married as ... (Wikipedia)
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie
A magical tale of India's history told through the story of a boy born at the stroke of midnight.
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem ... (Goodreads)
The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins
A mystery novel, unraveling the secrets of an ancient Indian diamond.
Colonel Herncastle, an unpleasant former soldier, brings the Moonstone back with him from India where he acquired it by theft and murder during the Siege of Seringapatam . Angry at his family, who ... (Wikipedia)
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
by Mohsin Hamid
A rags-to-riches story of a young man's journey to success in a changing world.
From the internationally bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist , the boldly imagined tale of a poor boy's quest for wealth and love. His first two novels established Mohsin Hamid as a ... (Goodreads)
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Collection of stories exploring the struggles of Indian-American immigrants in the US.
A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four ... (Wikipedia)
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
An exploration of the effects of colonialism on the characters' lives in a small Himalayan town.
In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his ... (Goodreads)
Family Matters
by Rohinton Mistry
Follows the lives of the Parsi family, navigating complex relationships in Bombay.
Nariman Vakeel is a 79 year-old Parsi widower beset by Parkinson's disease and haunted by memories of the past. He lives with his two middle-aged step-children. When Nariman's illness is compounded ... (Wikipedia)
Golden Hill
by Francis Spufford
A stranger arrives in colonial New York with a bill worth a thousand pounds, causing a stir and raising suspicions.
In early November 1746 a traveller called Mr Smith arrives in New York, bringing with him a bill for £1000, which he takes to Mr Lovell, a local businessman, who reluctantly agrees to honour it ... (Wikipedia)
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
An Australian convict escapes to India and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to a 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions , and shops. In July 1980, he ... (Wikipedia)
Shalimar the Clown
by Salman Rushdie
A story of love, loss, and revenge set against a backdrop of religious extremism, terrorism, and political unrest.
The central character, India, is the illegitimate child of a former United States ambassador to India, Maximilian Ophuls. Although a number of narratives and incidents in the novel revolve around ... (Wikipedia)
The Oath of the Vayuputras
by Amish Tripathi
An epic adventure of revenge, redemption and self-discovery.
ONLY A GOD CAN STOP IT. Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose ... (Goodreads)
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie
An exploration into the clash between faith and reason, with a controversial narrative of religious satire.
Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through the falling debris, two figures, Gibreel Farishta, the biggest star in India, and Saladin ... (Goodreads)
The Immortals of Meluha
by Amish Tripathi
Epic adventure of an ancient warrior, seeking to protect a kingdom from evil forces.
Meluha is a near perfect empire, created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram , one of the greatest Hindu kings that ever lived. However, the once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe ... (Wikipedia)
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.
The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)
Pigeon English
by Stephen Kelman
A young Ghanaian boy living in London investigates a murder in his community.
The novel begins with the death of a young boy on the fictional Dell Farm estate in an unspecified area of London. Harri Opoku, a recent Ghanaian immigrant living with his mother and sister, becomes ... (Wikipedia)
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez
An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)
Such a Long Journey
by Rohinton Mistry
A middle-class Parsi family in 1971 Bombay navigates political turmoil, personal struggles, and secrets.
It is Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over what was to become Bangladesh. A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. ... (Goodreads)
The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
A young Indian-American's journey of reconciling two different cultures and his own identity.
The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a young Bengali couple, leave Calcutta , India, and settle in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Ashoke is an engineering student at the ... (Wikipedia)
My Name Is Red
by Orhan Pamuk
An art mystery set in 16th century Istanbul, delving into the power of art, religion and love.
At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of ... (Goodreads)
The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach
A college baseball team's success and failures are intertwined with the lives of five individuals.
Henry Skrimshander begins the novel as a 17-year-old playing on a Legion baseball team in Lankton, South Dakota. Although physically short and not muscular, Henry has an unusual gift for fielding, ... (Wikipedia)
Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Collection of stories exploring the complexities of family, culture, and identity.
From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take ... (Goodreads)
Moth Smoke
by Mohsin Hamid
A story of love, drugs, and social class in modern-day Lahore, Pakistan. The protagonist's life spirals out of control after losing his job and falling for his best friend's wife.
When Daru Shezad is fired from his banking job in Lahore, he begins a decline that plummets the length of this sharply drawn, subversive tale. Before long, he can't pay his bills, and he loses his ... (Goodreads)
The Stranger's Child
by Alan Hollinghurst
A poet's death and the mystery surrounding it are explored through the perspectives of different characters over several decades.
The Stranger's Child consists of five sections, each set in a different period: In 1913 Cecil Valance, the 22-year-old heir to a large country estate and a published poet, spends a weekend at Two ... (Wikipedia)
A Case of Exploding Mangoes
by Mohammed Hanif
A satirical novel that explores the events leading up to the plane crash that killed Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in 1988.
The central theme of the book is a fictitious story behind the real-life plane crash which killed General Zia , president of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories ... (Wikipedia)
A Walk Across the Sun
by Corban Addison
Two sisters in India are orphaned after a tsunami and sold into the sex trade. A lawyer and activist fight to save them.
The novel follows two narratives, one following the orphaned teenage sisters Ahalya and Sita, who formerly lived near the coast of Chennai with their family, and another following a lawyer named ... (Wikipedia)
