Debut

12 Debut Fiction Books You Need to Read This Year

The Far Field
by Madhuri Vijay

In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged, naive and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote village in Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to track him down. But as soon as Shalini arrives, she is confronted with the region’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. As life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could have dangerous repercussions for the people she has come to love. With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay gives a potent critique of Indian politics and class prejudice through the lens of a guileless outsider, while also offering up a profound meditation on grief, guilt and the limits of compassion
Girl in White Cotton
by Avni Doshi

Antara has never understood her mother Tara’s decisions – walking out on her marriage to follow a guru, living on the streets like a beggar, shacking up with an unknown artist, rebelling against society’s expectations … But when Tara starts losing her memory, Antara searches for a way to make peace with their shared past, a past that haunts them both. As she relives her childhood in Pune in the eighties, Catholic boarding school in the hills of Maharashtra, and her years as a young artist in Bombay, Antara comes up against her own fears and neuroses, realizing she might not be so different from Tara after all. Girl in White Cotton is a journey into shifting memories, altering identities and the subjective nature of truth. Tracing the fragile line between familial devotion and deception, Avni Doshi’s mesmerizing first novel will surprise and unsettle you.
Babu Bangladesh
by Numair Choudhury (posthumous)

Bangladesh, 2028. A biographer begins to document the life of an enigmatic and controversial political luminary – Babu, also known as ‘Babu Bangladesh’. In unearthing the story of a man whom many thought was the leader of his generation, he begins to uncover the story of a nation itself. Buildings acquire consciousness to chart political outcomes, a tree stands defiantly even as marauding troops try to blast it out of existence, tribes of snake and tree worshipers compete for regional supremacy, even as fish-humanoids emerge from the waters … Flitting between fantasy and reality, manoeuvring through the rainforest swamps of Bangladesh with as much ease as the immigrant colonies of New York, blurring the boundaries between myth, history and truth, Babu Bangladesh! is a work of stunning scope and ambition from the most exciting literary voice to emerge from the Subcontinent in years.
A Flutter in the Colony
by Sandeep Roy

In 1956, the Senguptas travel from Calcutta to rural Malaya to start afresh. In their new hamlet of anonymity, the couple gradually forget past troubles and form new ties. But this second home is not entirely free and gentle. A complex, racially charged society, it is on the brink of independence even as communist insurgents hover on the periphery. How much should a newcomer meddle before it starts to destroy him? Shuttling in time and temper between the rubber plantations of Malaya and the anguish-filled years of pre-Partition Bengal, between the Malayan Emergency and Direct Action Day, between indifference and lust, A Flutter in the Colony is a tender, resonant chronicle of a family struggling to remain together in the twilight of Empire in Asia.
Adulting
by Neharika Gupta

Social media manager and popular blogger Aisha is flirty and flamboyant … even as she battles personal demons that tell her she must stop eating if she wants to stay pretty. Ruhi couldn’t be more different from her friend Aisha. Working at Litracy Publishing, she feels grossly under-appreciated by the editor-in-chief, who happens to be her mother. What keeps her going are her own ambitions – and her handsome author Tejas. Bestselling novelist Tejas has a bad case of writer’s block. He leans on Ruhi for emotional support before getting enamoured by Aisha as he struggles to live up to everyone’s expectations, including his own. Bold and unapologetic, this is a story of love and self-discovery, heartache and book launches.
Daura
by Anukriti Upadhyay

A journey into the dark heart of the desert. A young District Collector is posted to one of the furthest outposts of rural Rajasthan, and finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the lives and troubles of the common people there. Then one day, with the help of a mysterious musician, the Sarangiya, he has an encounter with beauty in its purest, most absolute form – an encounter that precipitates a dangerous descent. The pages from the journal he keeps are combined with the narratives of various people around him to create a compelling account of his slide away from reality. Half real and half fable, and redolent with the songs and myths, the beauty and mystery of Rajasthan, Anukrti Upadhyay’s Daura announces the arrival of a powerful new literary talent.
Bhaunri
by Anukriti Upadhyay

Can too much love be a dangerous thing? Bhaunri is married, as is the custom in her tribe of nomadic blacksmiths, when she is still a child. When she is finally sent away to her husband’s home as a young woman, she finds herself drawn deeply and powerfully towards the gruff and handsome Bheema. Bheema, however, is far from the ideal husband, and when he strays one time too many, Bhaunri’s love for him begins to fester and grow into something dark and fearsome. This is a story of obsessive love and the destructive power of desire. Half real and half fable, and redolent with the songs and myths, the beauty and mystery of Rajasthan, Anukrti Upadhyays Bhaunri announces the arrival of a powerful new literary talent.
Still to come…
The Swap
by Shuma Raha
Accidental Magic
by Keshava Guha
Dopehri
by Pankaj Kapoor
This Is How It Took Place
by Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee (posthumous)
Paper Moon
by Rehana Munir