In this blog, we’re thrilled to present a handpicked selection of Indian fiction books spanning various subgenres. Thrillers, crime, fantasy, horror, romance, sci-fi – we’ve got something for everyone.
Our recommendations promise to transport you to new and exciting worlds, where every turn of the page brings fresh adventures and unforgettable characters to life.
Are you ready to embark on thrilling quests? Unravel perplexing mysteries? Lose yourself in the tender embrace of a captivating romance?
Find your favourite reading nook, brew a steaming cup of tea, and prepare to embark on a literary journey like no other through some of our best fiction books.
For our first category of fiction books, we have a selection of our latest crime & thriller novels for you!
Time is arguably our biggest enemy. And memory, perhaps, our greatest curse. Which makes forgetting the hardest thing to do.
Identical-twin rickshaw drivers are wrongly suspected of terrorism in paranoid Bombay; a Calcutta merchant envies each saree he sells for the intimacy it’ll share with the woman who buys it; an illicit love affair is conducted over nine potent text messages; a lonely astronaut sings out loud, hoping his voice will find an ear somewhere; adivasis, jawans, Naxalites, policemen and journalists in Orissa are caught in a web of violence unleashed on them by both their own histories and that of a nation helplessly repeating it.
Here are forty-nine stories that speak to the power of forgetting.
Stories of difficult pasts, and the struggle to leave them behind.
With a deadly pandemic reaching its peak across the country, the last thing Inspector Mona Ramteke, in Hyderabad training to be an ACP, wants is to be roped into a high-profile investigation. But when news arrives quite suddenly that four distinguished employees of a prominent media house have died in their office cabins on the same day, at around the same time, Mona is summoned to ‘crack the case as soon as possible’.
Will Mona be able to untangle the knotty mystery before it’s too late, and more bodies begin to surface?
Late one night in November 2016, Satyapriya, a middle-aged professional living alone in a big city, is attacked by an unidentified assailant. Though she escapes unhurt, a conversation with her paralysed father reveals that this was no random incident but the latest in a series of attempts to kill her. And when he dies unexpectedly soon after, a devastated Satyapriya sets out to unravel the conspiracy coiling around her.
These fiction books don’t suite your tastes? No problem! We have a dedicated blog offering more mystery and crime recommendations here.
Indulge in Matters of the Heart! In this section we have fiction books that promise to sweep you off your feet and tug at your heartstrings.
When Ikadashi Kumar and Fredrick Heisenberg meet in London, the pull is immediate and electric. She enjoys dancing in the rain and has worked her way up the corporate ladder. He is curt, focused and one the most desirable men in the UK.
Despite Ika and Fredrick’s best attempts to thwart them, powerful forces draw the two together threatening to turn their worlds to ashes, for Fredrick is engaged to a popular American celebrity and Ika is a wife and mother.
Will they be able to fight destiny and their own fears? Will Ika finally give in and follow her heart? Will Fredrick find the answers to unlock secrets from his past?
When the younger players in India’s cricket team find out that advertising executive Zoya Singh Solanki was born at the very moment India won the World Cup back in 1983, they are intrigued. When having breakfast with her is followed by victories on the field, they are impressed. And when not eating with her results in defeat, they decide she’s a lucky charm. The nation goes a step further. Amazed at the ragtag team’s sudden spurt of victories, it declares her a Goddess. So when the eccentric IBCC president and his mesmeric, always-exquisitely-attired Swamiji invite Zoya to accompany the team to the tenth ICC World Cup, she has no choice but to agree.
Pursued by international cricket boards on the one hand, wooed by Cola majors on the other, Zoya struggles to stay grounded in the thick of the world cup action. And it doesn’t help that she keeps clashing with the erratically brilliant new skipper who tells her flatly that he doesn’t believe in luck…
When Vipasha–Vee to friends–eighteen and single, makes the decision to have her baby, she does more than give up her promising modelling career. She ends up cutting ties with her family, and with Ankush, the man she thought she was in love with.
Fast-forward sixteen years and she now has two unusual careers: she runs a dog-boarding facility and is a gym instructor. Her son, Aryan, thinks she is the coolest mom in the world and hopes she will one day find her Prince Charming–exactly what her best friend Suchi has in mind for her. But Vee secretly has a thing for Saurabh, the quirky vet. Then, out of the blue, Ankush comes back into their lives.
But can a decision that was taken at eighteen–more in the throes of lust than love–be the basis of a life-long relationship? Is there a future for Ankush and Vee?
Travel to the past with our selection of Indian fiction books.
India. August, 1946. Everything is about to change.
Priya, Jamini and Deepa, Dr Nabakumar Ganguly’s daughters, live in Ranipur, Bengal, safe from the rising turbulence in the country. When their father is killed on Direct Action Day, their world turns upside-down.
Priya, the youngest, intelligent and idealistic, is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor, no matter how difficult. She is fortunate to have the support of zamindar Somnath Chowdhury, her father’s best friend. Jamini, devout, dutiful and talented, helps her mother stitch kanthas to make ends meet. Hungering for affection even as she is resentful of her sisters, she nurses a secret desire. Beautiful Deepa, the eldest, all set to marry well, falls in love with Raza, Youth Leader at the Muslim League, and must face the consequences.
When India is partitioned, the sisters find themselves separated from one another, afraid of what will happen to not only themselves, but also each other. It is only then that they understand what it means to be independent, and the price one has to pay for it.
This is a story of Gurdev and his cohort, a group of refugees who travel east from Pakistan after Partition. It is a tale of falling apart and coming together as the world burns around them.
Will Gurdev be successful in his new business of making garments for women? Will he find love after his wife and children leave his side? There may be uncertainty here, but there is also relentless hope.
Journey back in time and experience the refugee spirit as Ladies’ Tailor captures you with all its romance, adventure and one man’s iron will to not just survive, but to thrive with new beginnings.
LAHORE, 1938.
Drawn by an intoxicating smell, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Anarkali Bazaar. Over the years that follow, the perfumer and the illuminator of manuscripts fall in love, their story written in dark and delicate ink.
However, with the 1947 Partition and the birth of two independent nations, Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani. Bound by family and fate, torn between duty and desire, as the two lovers move farther away from one other, they must decide how much of their memories to hold on to…
None of the above of the above your cup of tea? No issue, cause these sci-fi and fantasy novels might just be right up your ally.
LOG – B:
Vacuous detective P. Manjunath and his assistant, Heng, wrestle with an inscrutable mystery pickling their world, but their witless endeavours are pitted against the smartest person in the world–self-disgraced scientist Dr Krishna, who creates and destroys the universes the duo invariably inhabits. Luckily for them, they have no idea about this–or most other things.
Now, as a cat-and-mouse game ensues between creator and created, the genius scientist is limited by the precarious nature of existence, and Manjunath is unlimited by his stupidity. If God plays dice with the universe, how does he handle losing?
In Kanan Gill’s wildly entertaining and moving debut novel, a sentient wall struggles with the limits of its artistic expression, a lapel pin’s habit of always giving truthful advice results in utter chaos, a Danish police officer becomes the enlightened leader of a worldwide group of Science Haters and a pill is developed to cure the human condition. A delightful alchemy of humour, imaginativeness and philosophical provocation, Acts of God marks the evolution of one of India’s finest comedic voices.
SERVING SIZE: 32 CHAPTERS, 3.5% PLOT (SKIMMED)
Myung and Laleh are keepers of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to an enigmatic figure they know only as ‘Great Wisa’. To Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough.
When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe where shapeshifting islands and ancient maps hold sway. There, she sets off on an adventure that is both tragic and transformative, for her and Laleh. For at the heart of her quest lies a mystery that has confounded scholars for generations: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi.
Fables, dreams and myths come together in this masterful work of fantasy by acclaimed author Tashan Mehta, sweeping across three landscapes, and featuring a museum of collective memory and a festival of madness. At its core, it asks: In the devastating chaos of this world, where all is in flux and the truth ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to?
Meet Zeba.
Spoilt, rich and interested in nothing but lazing on the terrace of her plush New York apartment and inhaling deep drags of her favourite weed — an irreverent girl who is about to become a very unlikely superhero.
Zeba’s cushy life takes an unexpected turn when she travels to the distant land of Khudir and discovers the source of her superpowers — the holy spring Zsa Zsa — and it falls on her (against her best instincts) to save the world she loves from the clutches of The Great Khan, a cruel tyrant with the most shaitani intentions. Can she vanquish her inner demons while she prepares for the fight of her life — a fight to save not just her family but the whole damn world?
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