Below are some of the most popular titles that are attracting readers in 2016.
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
This book is a great inside view of the metropolitan city of Bombay. It talks about the lives of people who come to the city of Bombay in search of a better life, as bar dancers or in Bollywood. The rivalries that are brewing between Muslims and Hindus are also mentioned. The story is compiled with anecdotes from the author’s nostalgic life growing up in the metropolis and where he returned after two decades. This sketch of Bombay life is actually a memoir of diversity and opulence. The non-fiction narrative is an interesting mix of a diary and travel diary and a socio-political analysis of Bombay and its people.
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
A celebrated postmodern fiction, the book traces the history of India in 1830 dominated by the opium trade. It is the saga of a ship named Ibis, which makes a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean just before the Opium Wars break out in China. In times of colonial upheaval, the destination brings a mixed population of Westerners and Indians on board. From a bankrupt king to a widowed tribal woman, from an American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan who find themselves on a ship leaving their family ties behind. His historical adventure traverses the poppy fields of the Ganges, the lanes of Canton and the high seas.
Chronicle of a Carrier of Corpses by Cyrus Mistry
At the edge of its separate diverse worlds, the city of Mumbai hides an almost invisible section known as the Parsi Body Carriers. These people are in charge of taking the corpses to the Torres del Silencio. Rejected and cut off from society, they are often poor. Hence a tragic love story between the son of the Parsi priest, Phiroze Elchidana, and the daughter of a corpse carrier, Sepideh.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Palace of Illusions
The epic reimagines the great Indian saga of the Mahabharata as told from a woman’s angle. Relevant in today’s war-torn world, this book takes us back to a time of half myth and half history. You may hear the narration of Panchaali, who is the wife of the legendary Pandava brothers, offering a new insight into ancient history. You can observe the life of Princess Panchaali up close from her birth of fire and from then on, follow her balancing act between her five husbands and her other relationships.
Secure your copy online today and sit back for a great read.