fiction book on India

[The waveguide]

I was looking for some nice fiction book on India when I found instead a well-written book on Afganistan by Khaled Husseini, "The Kite Runner". However I still would like to find something about India. "The life of Pi" by Yann Martel was nice but it was not so much about India at the end. May be somebody could advise a nice readable fiction-book? (Well, not the Loney Planet, that one I read already

Thanx

 

[Stewart]

I found instead a well-written book on Afganistan by Khaled Husseini, "The Kite Runner".

You can read mixed opinions on that nonsense here.

However I still would like to find something about India.

Although I've not read any of them...yet, the Indian authors I can think of are Vikram Seth (his A Suitable Boy is over 1,000 pages long and is set there), Arundhati Roy (her The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize in 1997), and Jhumpa Lahiri (her Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer for Fiction in 2000).

Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie are two others that spring to mind.

 

[The waveguide]

Thanx for your advise.

You can read mixed opinions on that nonsense here.

Yes, also my friends have different opinions on this book. I've been to Tajikistan, nearby Afghanistan, at some point of my life, and this book brought back some of my best memories. I think it speaks to those people who were in that part of the world at least once, rather then to just a simple reader.

I also admire people who can write with such an ease: I finished this book within one evening! It is just like Harry Potter, easy-to-read. Have you ever tried Don Quixote ? I suffered so much by the first 100 pages and I felt so well when I realized that I must not continue!

Now I just have my respects to those who know to write what is easy to read.

 

[Stewart]

I think it [The Kite Runner] speaks to those people who were in that part of the world at least once, rather then to just a simple reader.

I hope you aren't calling me a simple reader.

Have you ever tried Don Quixote ? I suffered so much by the first 100 pages and I felt so well when I realized that I must not continue!

I read 200-300 pages of it last year but I stopped reading it because I really wanted to read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. I forgot to return to it. But this year I will.

 

[The waveguide]

I hope you aren't calling me a simple reader.

Sorry I did not mean that

I read 200-300 pages of it (Don Quixote) last year but I stopped reading it

Well, I do understand that!

I forgot to return to it. But this year I will.

Good Luck! I have no idea why people are doing that to themselves. I felt so relieved when I stopped reading it. The sun was suddenly warmer, people friendlier, and life was much better in every respect! I believe that I learnt what does the word "Suffering" means!

Are those indian books that you have advised easy-to-read, or are they as difficult as Don Quixote?

 

[Stewart]

Good Luck! I have no idea why people are doing that to themselves. I felt so relieved when I stopped reading it.

But I was enjoying it. I only stopped because the thought of another 700 or so pages before I got to read Umberto Eco would only have made me miserable and made the book a drag.

Are those indian books that you have advised easy-to-read

Easier than my post, it would seem.

Although I've not read any of them...yet, the Indian authors I can think of are Vikram Seth (his A Suitable Boy is over 1,000 pages long and is set there), Arundhati Roy (her The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize in 1997), and Jhumpa Lahiri (her Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer for Fiction in 2000).

I have read the first story from Interpreter of Maladies and it was an easy narrative.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

... I still would like to find something about India...

If you can't get the info you want here try logging onto the BBC Book board and post your request there. There's a guy on there called Himadri who'll point you in the right direction, his advice is always worth following...

regards,

K-S

 

[The waveguide]

Thank you all very much.
I'll try that!

 

[KristoCat]

Try Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. It's about how India gained independence and has lots of local culture-ish elements from what I've heard (I haven't read it but it's on my TBR list). Make sure you're ok with magical realism though before you try it.

Also, I read a historical fiction novel about India called The Twentieth Wife. It's about an Indian noblewoman right around when the Europeans were starting to come to India, and the Raj was still in charge. Anyway the noblewoman and the prince have to overcome several obstacles in order to end up together, and there's a strong current of political intrigue throughout.

 

[Ell]

I was looking for some nice fiction book on India when I found instead a well-written book on Afganistan by Khaled Husseini, "The Kite Runner". However I still would like to find something about India. "The life of Pi" by Yann Martel was nice but it was not so much about India at the end. May be somebody could advise a nice readable fiction-book? (Well, not the Loney Planet, that one I read already

An excellent book set in India is A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's set during the time Indira Ghandi was Prime Minister, her state of emergency measures and the impact on the people of India. It details the lives of two young men and a young widow who are thrown together by circumstance and how they manage to cope and rely on each other despite personal tragedy and the devastating poverty and chaos around them.

God of Small Things is also very good, but less about India and more about the relationships of the characters.

 

[Rosella]

You could also try another Rohinton Mistry Family matters. A very endearing book, gentle amusing and occasionally a little black humoured