20+ Great Novels About India

Book Summary

This literary fiction set in 2018 follows Indian-American journalist Smita as she returns to India to investigate Meena’s story. Meena is a Hindu woman who was disfigured when her brothers set fire to her home because she married a Muslim man. 

Brave Meena fights back by taking her brothers to court for their brutal crime. While learning more about Meena and her relationship, Smita is surprised to find her own romantic connection in India.

Book Summary

Travel back in time to 1950s India to meet Lakshmi. After fleeing from an abusive marriage, she settles in the vibrant city of Jaipur. Her talents as a henna artist enable her to survive on her own. She becomes a confidant to her clients in the wealthy upper class. 

As her reputation grows as an herbalist who provides beautiful henna work and sound advice, she helps her clients in new ways. Then, Lakshmi is shocked when her past resurfaces. The husband she escaped arrives in Jaipur, along with a girl he says is Lakshmi’s 13-year-old sister.  

The book covers a full year in Lakshmi’s life. You’ll find yourself absorbed by the vivid descriptions of the culture and scenery and enamored with Lakshmi’s strength.

Heads Up: Abortions are part of the plot.

Book Summary

When Preeti was 7, her family moved from their home country of India to America and hoped their children would escape the stigmas that come with India’s caste system. As she grew up, she learned to survive and thrive in the United States. Preeti even becomes a lawyer and is on track for a partnership.

To help her odds of getting the promotion to partnership, and to avoid her mother, Preeti skips a chance to return to India for her cousin’s wedding. However, when an emergency arises, she jumps on a plane to be by her brother’s side. Preeti’s return to India brings up many emotions as she reconciles how her past fits into her current life.

Book Summary

Independence takes you into the lives of three sisters during a traumatic period of history – partition, in which India became only for Hindus and a carved-out area became Pakistan, which was assigned to Muslims. It was one of the largest human displacements in history. 

Sister Priya is intelligent and determined to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a doctor, even though that isn’t a normal path for a woman. Deepa is considered the beautiful one, and dreams of a marriage that will increase her family’s status AND bring her joy. Jamini is a talented quiltmaker with deep passions she doesn’t reveal to her family. 

When Deepa falls in love with a Muslim and partition is declared, the sisters are separated and propelled onto different paths. They fear for themselves, but also for what could happen to each other.

Book Summary

Kerala, on India’s southern coast, is a slender, coastal state with almost 373 miles of Arabian Sea coast and beaches. Being surrounded by water makes this a popular tourist destination. But for the family at the heart of this novel, being surrounded by water has plagued three generations. In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning.

This new literary fiction epic is a tale of love, faith, and medicine in which the family is seeking answers to this strange secret. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life.

Book Summary

The protagonist, Kaveri, is a new bride and recently moved to Bangalore to be with her husband, a doctor. She has no plans to be a typical housewife and is studying advanced mathematics and hopes to attend college. Thankfully, her husband, Ramu, adores her and supports her dreams, even if his mother believes women should cook, clean, and center their lives around their husbands. 

During a party one evening, Kaveri notices an uninvited guest lurking in the shadows. A short time later, someone is murdered, and a vulnerable woman has been identified as a suspect. Kaveri isn’t willing to stand by and let this woman pay for someone else’s crime, so she launches an investigation that takes her from a brothel to a mansion.

Book Summary

The Shergill sisters, Rajni, Jezmee, and Shirina were not close growing up, and that hasn’t changed as they became adults with their own lives.

On her deathbed, their mother requests that the British-born sisters return to her homeland to carry out her final rites. Each sister is in the middle of her own very different big life decisions, but they agree to honor their mother’s wishes.

Book Summary

This historical romance tells the story of two generations. Jaya is a journalist in present-day New York, heartbroken after a third miscarriage and its effects on her marriage. 

In desperate need of a change of scenery, she sets off for India to explore her family history. As Jaya learns about the culture, she also learns about her grandmother’s experiences during WW2 from Ravi, her grandma’s former servant and confidant. He shares stories of both struggle and love, and helps Jaya discover her own legacy and strength.

Book Summary

After leaving India for the US, Remy was happy to distance himself from his cold mother. Years later, he’s now returning to Bombay to adopt a baby. His mother is now at the end of her life in a hospital, and is no longer speaking.

Remy finds himself feeling extremely guilty for not understanding how ill she really is and becomes determined to help her recover. But in his mother’s apartment, he finds a photo that sets off the unveiling of family secrets. As he’s on the cusp of becoming a parent himself, he’s forced to reevaluate his entire childhood and his relationship to his parents

Book Summary

In this family saga, Shahryar is on a work visa in the United States. Soon, he will be forced to return to Bangladesh without his young American daughter. As he tries to cherish his final weeks with her, he also ponders his family history and how it intertwines with his home country. 

This novel weaves together a large cast of major and minor characters to cover Bangladesh’s history from WW2 Burma to the present day. The storylines include the Partition of India in 1947, the 1970 Bhola Cyclone, and Bangladesh’s becoming an independent country in 1972. 

While these stories span history, they also discuss Shahryar’s struggles as a modern-day immigrant in Washington, D.C.

Book Summary

Perveen Mistry is one of the first female lawyers in India, complete with an Oxford education and a passion for protecting women’s rights. After joining her father’s law firm in the 1920s, she’s assigned oversight of a wealthy man’s will. It’s complicated because he has three widows.

Perveen becomes suspicious when all three women sign their inheritances to a charity, leaving themselves no money to live on. When Perveen investigates, things quickly escalate to involve murder. She has to figure out what happened behind the closed doors of Malabar Hill before someone else is hurt.

Book Summary

Geeta had a terrible husband, so it wasn’t the worst thing when he disappeared five years ago. She didn’t kill him, but everyone thinks she did. At first, she’s worried this will hurt her reputation, but it turns out that being feared is good for business. 

No one bothers her, and people want to stay on her good side, so they keep buying her jewelry. Things are working out well until women start coming to her for help getting rid of their terrible husbands. Not all the women are asking nicely, and these are very bad guys, but how far will she go to protect her reputation?

Book Summary

In Mumbai, Rakhi grew up as a street child, but is now 23 years old and works at Justice For All, a human-rights law firm. Despite her intelligence and wit, everyone underestimates her. She’s also still haunted by an incident that killed her best friend when she was only 12. 

Rubina is a former Bollywood star who craves a return to the spotlight. Her path intersects with Rakhi’s when she becomes a celebrity ambassador for Justice For All. Rubina begins steering the organization into new places. She also brings a Canadian family friend, Alex, who is headed to Harvard but needs a summer internship. He wants Rakhi to show him the “real” India. 

As Rakhi spends more time with Alex, old guilt and new aspirations collide.

Book Summary

The Jha family lives a middle-class life, happy their son has been accepted to a university in America. Then, Mr. Jha receives a windfall of cash when an internet company he started gets bought out. 

He decides they should move to the ultra-rich side of town and is eager to do everything possible to fit in and embrace his new financial status. However, the move sets off a chain of events in their neighborhood and family, forcing them to see what really matters. 

Book Summary

This darkly witty book is the story of the caste system in India and the vast differences in the lives of those in it.

Balram Halwai is hired as a driver for his village’s wealthiest family and gets a glimpse into the lives of the rich. Balram studies the actions of his employers and learns how to finagle his way to financial success, but that doesn’t mean he’s doing it morally.

Book Summary

To the other women in her hometown of Ahmedabad, India, Nita had the ideal life—a financially comfortable, happy marriage with a sweet daughter. But Nita felt otherwise. It wasn’t the life she wanted. Instead, she decided to follow her creative ambitions all the way to Paris. But this decision was not without consequences. 

Years later, when Nita’s daughter, Sophie, learns the truth, she sets out for Paris to find the mother who left her behind. The trip threatens to derail Sophie’s upcoming arranged marriage, but she won’t stop chasing leads across the City of Lights until she finds the truth about Nita. Along the way, however, she may find even more than she bargained for.

Book Summary

This story follows three different characters in three locations, spanning three continents and three decades, from WW2 to the 1970s. 

Savitri is a servant girl in British-ruled India, Nat is the son of a small-town doctor in South India, and Saroj is growing up in the South American, British-ruled Guyana. Although the stories are far apart in both time and place, eventually, you’ll discover how their lives are intertwined.

Book Summary

In her early 30s, Elizabeth Gilbert seemingly had it all—she was well educated, had a successful career, a husband, and a nice home. But rather than feeling fulfilled, her modern American success left her feeling unhappy and a bit panicked because she wasn’t sure why.

After a painful divorce and a failed rebound relationship, she decided to leave it all behind and to set out on a year of solo-travel to three distinct destinations. In each, she immersed herself in the culture while exploring a different side of herself.

In Italy, she gave in to pleasure—especially food. In India, she spent four months at an ashram focusing on uninterrupted spiritual exploration. Finally, on the Indonesian island of Bali, Gilbert sought to find the balance between enjoyment and transcendence. Bali is also where she unexpectedly fell in love.

Book Summary

This novel is about four women who began their friendship during college in Bombay in the 1970s. Initially drawn together by their revolutionary fervor, the friends drift apart over the next 30 years as their lives take very different paths. One married an American, while another was caught in a repressive marriage and forced to wear a burka.

Through their stories, the author paints a portrait of India from the 1970s through the early 2010s. Ultimately, the four friends are reunited when one of them falls gravely ill and requests to see her friends together one last time.

Book Summary

We first meet the Eapen family in 1979 when Thomas visits his mother’s home in India. She tries to convince him to stay in India with his young family, but Thomas, a surgeon, has already built a new life for himself in New Mexico. His wife, Kamala, however, would love to stay in India.

In 1998, Thomas’ now grown daughter is a photographer living in Seattle. She learns from her mother that her dad is sitting on the porch talking to dead relatives, but she assumes her mom is exaggerating. When she returns home, the situation is much more complicated than her mother lets on. To help her father, they’ll all have to come to terms with the family’s painful past.

Book Summary

While many Indian families still practice different degrees of arranged marriage, this non-fiction book looks at the real lives of three couples who have rejected tradition. In addition to exploring their relationships, you’ll get insight into the couples’ villages and cities. The first couple is a lesbian duo forced to flee for a chance at a life together. Then there’s the Hindu woman and Muslim man who escaped their families under the cover of the night after being harassed by a violent militia group. Finally, there’s the inter-caste couple who are doing everything to avoid the same fate as a similar couple who were burned alive. 

The book switches between characters’ forbidden love stories more like a novel and is a page-turning insight into several aspects of Indian culture.