Recommendations based on Train to Pakistanby Khushwant Singh

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT

    by Chetan Bhagat
    Three friends at IIT navigate their way through college, learning life lessons along the way.

    The book is narrated by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the 3 friends, whose elation on ... (Wikipedia)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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)

  5. 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)

  6. The White Tiger

    by Aravind Adiga
    An exploration of the Indian class system, told from the perspective of a lower-caste man.

    The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China, who will soon be visiting India. Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in the village of ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Malgudi Days

    by R.K. Narayan
    A captivating collection of stories set in a fictional South Indian town, exploring the lives of its eccentric inhabitants.

    Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennial Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look ... (Goodreads)

  8. 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)

  9. Swami and Friends

    by R.K. Narayan
    A group of friends living in a small Indian town experience adventures and growth.

    The story revolves around a ten year old school boy named Swaminathan and his friends. Throughout the novel he is called as Swami . All the events take place in Malgudi , A fictional town. Swami ... (Wikipedia)

  10. 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)

  11. 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)

  12. 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)

  13. 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)

  14. 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

    by Chetan Bhagat
    A romantic comedy about two people from different cultural backgrounds who must overcome family opposition to be together.

    2 States: The Story of My Marriage is autobiographical with only names changed. The story is about a couple Krish and Ananya, who hail from two different states of India, Punjab and Tamil Nadu , ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Forty Rules of Love

    by Elif Shafak
    A story of romance and spiritual enlightenment, exploring the teachings of a Sufi master.

    Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy , a novel written by a ... (Goodreads)

  16. 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)

  17. The Palace of Illusions

    by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
    A narrative of a brave woman's journey through Indian mythology, coming to terms with her fate.

    A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat—told from the point of view of an amazing woman. Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that ... (Goodreads)

  18. Chanakya's Chant

    by Ashwin Sanghi
    A political thriller that weaves together the stories of Chanakya, an ancient Indian strategist, and a modern-day politician.

    The year is 340 B.C . A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father by the Emperor of Magadh, Dhana Nanda. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with ... (Wikipedia)

  19. 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)

  20. 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)

  21. 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)

  22. 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)

  23. 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)

  24. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

    by Jeffrey Archer
    Four strangers' desperate attempts to reclaim their stolen fortunes.

    The conned: an Oxford don, a revered society physician, a chic French art dealer, and a charming English lord. They have one thing in common. Overnight, each novice investor lost his life's fortune ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Fountainhead

    by Ayn Rand
    A story of a brilliant architect who refuses to conform to the establishment, challenging the status quo.

    In early 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from the architecture department of the Stanton Institute of Technology because he has not adhered to the school's preference for historical convention in ... (Wikipedia)

  26. 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)

  27. Kane & Abel

    by Jeffrey Archer
    Two rival men, from different backgrounds, fight for success and power in a cutthroat world.

    The book tells the stories of two men born worlds apart. They have nothing in common except the same date of birth (18 April 1906 in the book, and 1901 in the miniseries based on it) and a zeal to ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Bloodline

    by Sidney Sheldon
    An investigative journalist discovers a hidden family secret that leads to a global conspiracy.

    Roffe and Sons is a family firm, an international empire filled with desperate, cash-hungry family members. The family consists of It is clear that everyone in the family is in need of money. The ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Reluctant Fundamentalist

    by Mohsin Hamid
    A Pakistani man's journey of identity and belonging, in a post-9/11 world.

    At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter… Changez is ... (Goodreads)

  30. Half Girlfriend

    by Chetan Bhagat
    A young man from Bihar falls in love with a rich girl from Delhi, but their different backgrounds create obstacles in their relationship.

    HALF GIRLFRIEND (HINDI) Once upon a time, there was a Bihari boy called Madhav. He fell in love with a girl from Delhi called Riya. Madhav didn't speak English well. Riya did. Madhav wanted a ... (Goodreads)