This was wonderful, Gayla. In answer to your question, here are some books set in India and/or by authors with roots there that I loved: The Namesake and The Lowlands (both by Jhumpa Lahiri), Inheritance of Loss and Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (both by Kiran Desai), White Tiger (Aravind Indiga).
Another amazing survey of ALL THE READING you do! While a bit dense, John Keay is an exceptional author who has written about India. It is a country with extremely large gaps in the written record and really many countries in one. I enjoyed India: A History. It is a challenging book but has given me a much better understanding of the regions of the country. This book is non-fiction but as I state, there are large gaps in the written history.
Thanks for your recommendation of the series by Joshi, which I would now like to read. I do enjoy immersing myself in another culture, particularly immigrant stories like Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, which someone mentioned. I also have enjoyed Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, by now almost a classic of the genre. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee’s story about the trauma and discrimination faced by Korean family that immigrates to Japan was a fascinating window into a clash of cultures I knew nothing about.
Oct 11, 2022·edited Oct 11, 2022Liked by Gayla Gray
I just wrote about this! I have a friend from India who recommended it me. She was actually visiting Jaipur and was sending me photos as I was reading it, so I had some great visualizations. The Pink Palace, with 1000 windows (which is still part hotel), looked amazing.
For novels set in India I highly recommend the Perveen Mistry series starting with The Widows Of Malabar Hill, then The Satapur Moonstone, then The Bombay Prince, all by Sujata Massey. Book 4 comes out next summer. Perveen is Bombay's first lady solicitor and the novels take place in the 1920's with some back story woven into the plots and lots of historic elements.
I haven't read any of Alka's books yet but having just finished the latest Perveen Mistry book am ready to dive into another story set in India so I just now added the audio version of The Henna Artist to my Libby account. Thanks for the nudge I needed. I look forward to reading this series.
I loved the first two books in this series, and look forward to reading the third. I had the great pleasure and honor of hosting Alka for one of our online author visits in 2021, and she was delightful. I was nervous (it was my first on-camera event), but she was so engaging and easy to talk with. she told us that she loves to visit with book groups who have read her book, and sometimes visits 2-3 groups a day via Zoom! I don't know of any other authors who are so accessible to their readers.
This was wonderful, Gayla. In answer to your question, here are some books set in India and/or by authors with roots there that I loved: The Namesake and The Lowlands (both by Jhumpa Lahiri), Inheritance of Loss and Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (both by Kiran Desai), White Tiger (Aravind Indiga).
Hi Gayla,
Another amazing survey of ALL THE READING you do! While a bit dense, John Keay is an exceptional author who has written about India. It is a country with extremely large gaps in the written record and really many countries in one. I enjoyed India: A History. It is a challenging book but has given me a much better understanding of the regions of the country. This book is non-fiction but as I state, there are large gaps in the written history.
Thanks for your recommendation of the series by Joshi, which I would now like to read. I do enjoy immersing myself in another culture, particularly immigrant stories like Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, which someone mentioned. I also have enjoyed Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, by now almost a classic of the genre. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee’s story about the trauma and discrimination faced by Korean family that immigrates to Japan was a fascinating window into a clash of cultures I knew nothing about.
I just wrote about this! I have a friend from India who recommended it me. She was actually visiting Jaipur and was sending me photos as I was reading it, so I had some great visualizations. The Pink Palace, with 1000 windows (which is still part hotel), looked amazing.
For novels set in India I highly recommend the Perveen Mistry series starting with The Widows Of Malabar Hill, then The Satapur Moonstone, then The Bombay Prince, all by Sujata Massey. Book 4 comes out next summer. Perveen is Bombay's first lady solicitor and the novels take place in the 1920's with some back story woven into the plots and lots of historic elements.
I haven't read any of Alka's books yet but having just finished the latest Perveen Mistry book am ready to dive into another story set in India so I just now added the audio version of The Henna Artist to my Libby account. Thanks for the nudge I needed. I look forward to reading this series.
I loved the first two books in this series, and look forward to reading the third. I had the great pleasure and honor of hosting Alka for one of our online author visits in 2021, and she was delightful. I was nervous (it was my first on-camera event), but she was so engaging and easy to talk with. she told us that she loves to visit with book groups who have read her book, and sometimes visits 2-3 groups a day via Zoom! I don't know of any other authors who are so accessible to their readers.