Indian history in fiction
Explore the rich tapestry of Indian history through captivating fiction. Discover top historical novels that bring India's past to life, from ancient empires to colonial eras. Perfect for history buffs and book lovers alike!
Book
The Ramayana
by Vālmīki
One of the ancient world's great verse epics is retold in energetic English prose in this sparkling volume.
Book
Raj
by Gita Mehta
"An 'historical novel that traces the life of an Indian princess from her birth during the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 until India wins its independence from the empire in the mid-twentieth century. Princess Jaya treads a path that leads from the ancient traditions of the maharajas -- in which the woman was subjugated to the man -- through the days in which India was held and exploited as a British possession; she becomes in the end a woman who has achieved her own independence and identity along with ehr country.'" Booklist
Book
Kim
by Rudyard Kipling
Kim, an Irish orphan, accompanies a holy man on his journey throughout India and his quest for a mystical river.
Book
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie
The story of Saleem Sinal, born precisely at midnight, August 15, 1947, the moment India became independent. Saleem's life parallels the history of his nation.
Book
Rainsongs of Kotli
by Tariq Malik
Fiction. Asian Studies. Set in the romantic Himalayan valleys, amidst breathtaking mountain snowmelts and the monsoon rainstorms, these beautifully told and haunting stories explore the lives and the longins and memories of the Lohar people of Kotli. Now, so much has changed in the Lohar village, and there is a story and a secret to every person, every family. In one story, a man's wife turns out to be a stranger, and his house is not quite his own, when two strangers appear and dig out their past from its earth; in another, a boy contemplates the mystery behind an old picture. Tariq Malik was born and raised in Pakistan, and lives in Vancouver.
Book
A Suitable Boy
by Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.