South Asian Literature discussion

Just want to know the favourites of the other members... some recommendations? Any one.

I really like Kiran Desai and her mother Anita Desai. I usually keep an eye on their books. I'm also a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri. Some re-read books

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

and a bunch of Malgudi stories by R.K. Narayan (people sometimes forget him when talking about great Asian reads.)

Mohsin Hamid for me!

Siddharth wrote: "Mohsin Hamid for me!"

Siddharth, can you link us your favourites by Mohsin Hamid? I've never heard of this writer.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Moth Smoke
Mohsin Hamid

The God of Small Things
Best book of all time for me

Loved The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I still have to read Moth Smoke. Also check out Home Boy: A Novel by HM Naqvi.

THE GOD of SMALL THINGS has to be the best. Others I have also enjoyed: The GEOMETRY OF GOD by Uzma Aslam Khan and TRAIN TO PAKISTAN by Khushwant Singh.

One of my favorite writers is Anita Nair. Recently I read SLUM CHILD by Bina Shah, about a Christian child growing up in a slum in Karachi. I recently finished Siddhartha Deb's THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED, five portraits of people in the new India, which was as riveting as any novel. Another favorite is DAIVAMAKKAL (CHILDREN OF GOD), by Sarah Thomas, about the son of an untouchable woman who is determined to give him a better life. Sarah is a friend of mine and this book is a translation by another friend of hers, hard to get in this country and written with the lilt of Indian English, which I happen to like but I'm not sure about how others feel about it. Anyway, she's a highly regarded writer in Kerala, India, but she writes in Malayalam. I'm adding all the other titles mentioned here to my TBR list.

Thrity Umrigar is one of my favorite authors. Favorite books by others, A Fine Balance, Sacred Games, A Suitable Boy.

Umrigar's THE SPACE BETWEEN US is one of the best books I've read--she really captures the tension in the friendship between the servant and employer, and the way people in different castes prey on each other. Another one I enjoyed is THE UNKNOWN ERRORS OF OUR LIVES by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, which I read when it came out about ten years ago (she also wrote MISTRESS OF SPICES).

So many South Asian works, these are just a few of my faves:

A Fine Balance
A Suitable Boy
The Space Between Us
Q and A....aka Slumdog Millionaire
Kite runner
Sacred Games
The God of Small Things
Namesake

You have excellent taste, Baljit. ;-)

My favourite South Asian read is Everything was Good-bye by Gurjinder Basran, it tells the story of a young sikh girl growing up in Vancouver, BC (my hometown!). I've also heard of another book which is also based in BC called Tears of Mehndi by Raminder Sidhu about gender descrimination/abuse in the south asian communities.

I haven't heard of either writer Christine mentioned, but both sound interesting. I've been reading mostly novels set in South India (since this is where I lived and the area I write about), but these will expand my thinking.

Yes, Christine, I"ll be looking out for the novels u mentioned, seem like my kind of reading material

I strongly recommend The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya.

I second the Moth Smoke recommendation.

Some of my favorites are also listed here: http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php

I think this website will be of some help.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (probably my all-time favorite)

And I very much enjoy Jhumpa Lahiri, although her books are as "South Asian-y) because they're focused on Indian immigrants here in the United States.

Hi I'm new here, live in Oxford in the UK but have had a long-standing love of India and Anglo-Indian writing.

Like Stephanie above, my favourite is Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie but am currently reading Amitav Ghosh's "Ibis" books - the first one, Sea of Poppies, is extremely good and full of incredible historical detail which to me is fascinating

For just absolute rollicking good fun, I loved Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts too: autobiographical story of a westerner who ended up living in an Indian slum. Fantastic book.

Hi Diane. yes, agree with your choices. I have read both the books you mentioned. In fact am looking for the 2nd of the Ibis trilogy.

Diane wrote: "Hi I'm new here, live in Oxford in the UK but have had a long-standing love of India and Anglo-Indian writing.

Like Stephanie above, my favourite is Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie[bookcove..."

Hi yes I had the 2nd Ibis book as a birthday present but haven't got to read it yet!

Hi, I'm Lara and new here. SouthAsian lit has been a great discovery for me. It has, for me the emotional tone and the cultural texture that I crave to read. I feel that it is the representative of the soft literary voice amidst all the noise. My favorites are The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah. I have also enjoyed works by Chitra Banerjee,Mohsin Hamid and Ayad Akhtar. I have read some excerpts from Anita Desai's remarkable writing, and look forward to reading her work as well.

The Girl from the Coast by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Hi Regina,

I have read the all the titles u listed, except for the 1st. is the writer Indonesian?

yes he is. This was actually intended to be the first of a trilogy. But he was imprisoned as a political dissident and the government destroyed the other two manuscripts before they could he published. The story is loosely based on the life of his grandmother

ok, i think he wrote The Fugitive and i read it years ago

I'm a huge fan of The God of Small Things, that one's definitely the favourite.
The others I enjoyed include:
Moth Smoke
Tunnel Vision
A Thousand Splendid Suns

I've also read Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, but I didn't enjoy it a lot. I hear A Case of Exploding Mangoes was the better one for Mohammed Hanif.

I've read a few chapters of Midnight's Children, but I couldn't really get into the book and before I could give it another shot, my friend took his copy back.
As for Home Boy: A Novel I gave up after a few pages, it didn't hold my interest. But my copy of it is beautiful and probably why I bought it.

Other books I want to read are:
The Satanic Verses
My Feudal Lord
The Namesake
Life of Pi (does this count?)
Shantaram
The Kite Runner

Fatin,

Of the books u mentioned, i higly recommend Kite Runner which i have read twice, Shantaram which is highly excting and The Namesake which i have read twice (and also seen the movie). The Namesake explores the issue of culture and identity of oneself.

I have read A case of exploding Mangoes but did not relli like it, it was more of a military backdrop. I did like Moth Smoke and A Thousnad Splendid Suns. Im not a bifg fan of Salman rushdies having read a number of his books, and finding them v convoluted.

Saadat Hasan Manto's Short Stories, hands down. To add a few more. I have read them in original. I wonder if there is a good English translation available.

From Pakistan:
Daniyal Moinuddin's In Other Rooms Other Wonders.
Bapsi Sidhwa's The Crow Eater.
Mohsin Hamid's Reluctant Fundamentalist.
M Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes.
H M Naqvi's Homeboy.
Uzma Aslam Khan's The Geometry of God

From India:
Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan
Arvand Adiga's The White Tiger
Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children

Alas, I have not read much from Bangladesh and other countries in South Asia. Any recommendations?

Baljit, you are right. Rushdie is too pedantic and presumptuous. I have found everything aside from Midnight's Children impossible to read. Reluctant Fundamentalist is in my opinion a better work than Moth Smoke. I found the depiction of Lahore in Moth Smoke unbelievable.

I just bought a bunch of Manyo's translated books on Amazon.

And agree On Rushdie.

I love all the first South Asian writers of English fiction like Bhapsi Sidhwa, Rohinton Mistry, Vimkram Seth, etc.

In addition to all those already mentioned I would add the works of Ziauddin Sardar and William Dalrymple - two of my most favorite non-fiction writers.

Hi, some of my favourites include:

The Kite Runner
Shantaram
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
White Tiger.

I'm also a fan of novels that tell of the imigrant's story such as White Teeth and Brick Lane.

I have a keen interest in reading and writing fiction set in Bangladesh but I have only found a handful of novels set in Bangladesh, any recommendations?

Hi. You have all mentioned so many of my favorites, but here are a few more:

The Death of Vishnu
Bombay Time
Last Man in Tower
White Tiger
Love and Longing in Bombay

Shuhin
My favorite book with a Bangladesh backdrop was A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam. My book The Lost Pearl has addressed a lot of immigrant nostalgia, it may interest you. It is based in Pakistan and California.
Lara

Lara
Thanks,
I've just read A Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam, I'll check out A Golden Age sometime as well.
The Lost Pearl sounds like the kind of thing I like to read and also the genre I write in, I'll give it a read.
I've just released my novel Lost Reunions, it is a tale of friendship, self-discovery and redemption set between the UK and Bangladesh, check it out if it sounds like the kind of thing you'd read.
Shuhin

Shuhin wrote: "Hi, some of my favourites include:

The Kite Runner
Shantaram
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
White Tiger.

I'm also a fan of novels that tell of the imigrant's story such as ..."

I read a Golden Age, but I preferred Kartography.

Shuhin

Here are few fiction readings based in or related to Bangladesh.

I thought A Golden Age and The Good Muslim, both by Tahmima Anam and mentioned above, depicted a detailed and compelling portrayal of Bangladesh and told a great story. And there will be a third in her trilogy!

Others:
Revenge by Taslima Nasrin (this story is set in Bangladesh);
Galpa: Short Stories by Women from Bangladesh, edited by Niaz Zaman & Firdous Azim;
Story-wallah, edited by Shyam Selvadurai (It’s a compilation of South Asian short stories and includes stories by Monica Ali and Numair Choudhury);
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh (about a Bengali boy and covering the second Bengali partition); and
The Hungry Tide also by Amitav Ghosh, set in the Sundarbans.

Ming, where do find the time to read so many books?

I have kids, Luaunna. Every night I read a couple hours to recover from the day and to decompress. And I have my "old-fashioned books" (no e-books) with me during commutes and standing in any line.

Ming wrote: "I have kids, Luaunna. Every night I read a couple hours to recover from the day and to decompress. And I have my "old-fashioned books" (no e-books) with me during commutes and standing in any line."
I do not have kids but seems over the last 6 or so months I can never find the time I used to spend in reading. For 2013 I hope to get back to reading 2-3 books each month. I always have books with me as well for those moments waiting. However, I then find myself reading at red lights in traffic, not the best idea. Thanks for sharing.

Ming wrote: "@Zahaib and @Shuhin

Here are few fiction readings based in or related to Bangladesh.

I thought A Golden Age and The Good Muslim, both by Tahmima Anam and mentioned above, depicted a detailed and ..."

Ming, thanks for the recommendations. I will be checking out Amitav Ghosh.

Thanks Shuhin,
Will definitely check out your book. I love the title.
Lara

I love the Desais, particularly Anita; Hamid Mohsin; Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers; Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace. There's a poet, Amit Majmudar, who I discovered in Poetry and who is just very talented... I still haven't read his prose, however, but that's on my list; Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things was great; Monica Ali's Brick Lane got a lot of heat, but I liked it.

I really did not like The Kite Runner. I thought Rushdie's Midnight's Children was so much better so far as exploring the good vs. flawed characters (perhaps because it was magical realism vs attempted realism?) I've heard A Thousand Splendid Suns is much better than Hosseini's first book, but I can't make myself read it now.

A Suitable Boy
Q & A
Land of a thousand Splendid Suns
The Bookseller of Kabul
The Kite Runner

Add my name to the list that ranks Roy's The God of Small Things at the top. As for Rushdie, my favorite is The Satanic Verses, though most others would probably go with Midnight's Children. I've read most of Rushdie's catalog, and while some books are better than others I'd recommend them all. I'll echo others and recommend Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. Also her first novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, while not on the same level as Inheritance is still a very worthwhile read. Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance is a must as well, and so is Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. One book I haven't seen mentioned yet (though I may have missed it) is Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. It was shortlisted for the 2012 Booker, and is one hell of a read.

Recently read "Love and Longing in Bombay" by Vikram Chandra. Now I am working on his "Red Earth and Pouring Rain". Love his writing.

I should retract what I said about Salman Rushdie earlier. I read Joseph Anton last month, and it was really good.

Shuhin wrote: "Ming, thanks for the recommendations. I will be checking out Amitav Ghosh."

From British Muslim Fictions, here are two more English-language books on Bangladesh and specifically 1971:

Seasonal Adjustments by Adib Khan;

Song of Our Swampland by Manzu Islam

My top list at this point in life, and likely to change as I read more and more...

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Freedom Song by Amit Chaudhuri
The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar
Baumgartner’s Bombay by Anita Desai
Collected Stories by Hanif Kureishi
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Snake Catcher by Naiyer Masud
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan
The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil