I haven’t read Shantaram (something about the excessive hype put me off a little bit) so can’t comment, but most people seem to love it. They also love The Kite Runner though, so what do you know...
The Hungry Tide is good, but Ghosh’s earlier works are better. The Shadow Lines and The Calcutta Chromosome are brilliant. A few other suggestions: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (really obvious one) A Suitable Boy (even more obvious) Anything by Jhumpa Lahiri Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra Younger authors: Or The Day Seizes You by Rajorshi Chakraborti Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta Turbulence by Samit Basu (this is SF) The Heat and Dust Project by Devapriya Roy and Saurav Jha Hope this helps! Connect: Twitter: @shrabonti Instagram: @shrabonti Phone: +91-9880536562 On Tue, 24 Oct 2017 at 5:33 PM John Sundman < John Sundman ( John Sundman <[email protected]> ) > wrote: > > > > > > > > On Oct 24, 2017, at 3:43 AM, Shrabonti Bagchi < [email protected] > > wrote: > > > > Having said that, I also think that the Indian literary novel in English > is going through a very low phase, and most IWE novels are either written > with the college crowd in mind and are of iffy quality or are genre works > (and genre writers do feature prominently at most events) > > As an American I confess to a profound ignorance of the Indian literary > novel in English, but I did this year read The Hungry Tide, by Amitav > Ghosh. > > I quite enjoyed it, although I thought the ending was much too contrived. > > I would appreciate suggestions on other books in this category that I can > read to fill this lamentable hole in my education. > > Also, I wonder what, if anything, Silklisters think of “Shantaram,” by > Gregory David Roberts, which has been an enormous worldwide hit in the > Anglo world; I don’t know how it has fared in India. It’s a literary novel > set in India, but it’s by an Austrailian (who lived in India for a long > time & is evidently fluent in 2 or more Indian languages.) I thought that > book was a decidedly mixed bag. The great parts were really great and the > awful parts were really awful. As it turns out, Joe Regal, the author’s > American literary agent, who shaped the book and was instrumental in its > success, is a close friend of mine. > > jrs > > > > > >
