As many of you know, I'm leaving for India the first of December. I'd like to stock my new Kindle with a couple of books for the trip and would enjoy a good novel that takes place there. Any suggestions?

I think you'll be too busy living the experience to want to read. The real thing will be more enjoyable and accurate too. Have a good trip!

There are SO many! But here are 3 to start you off:


http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Balance-R.../dp/0679776451


http://www.amazon.com/Space-Between-...9601212&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Staying-Phoeni...9601255&sr=1-1

I was going to recommend the Mistry too.

If you are going to Delhi, (nonfiction) "City of Djinns"--history which reads like a novel.

"Under the Marble Sky" about building of Taj Mahal--a romance, but great descriptions of life in Agra Fort

Anything by Wm. Dalrymple is fabulous, especially "White Moghuls" and "The Last Moghul.". Rohin Mistry is a Parsi with the perspective of a Parsi. Paul Scott's "The Raj Quarter" is a delicious classic. He writes wonderfully about the conflict among the British and Indians about their mutual interaction at the end of WWI.

Unfortunately "Beneath a Marble Sky" (the romance about the Taj Mahal that Cali mentioned) is NOT available on Kindle. I purchased it in paperback and I plan to finish it on the flight to Delhi. (We leave tomorrow -- I'm still packing!!!)

I did purchase "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy and "White Tiger," the 2008 Booker Prize winner, for my Kindle, plus some non-fiction (Giles Tilotson's "Taj Mahal" and Stanley Wolpert's "India") as well. Have a great trip!

Don't know what's available on Kindle, but there are so many great books about India, and I think you might enjoy doing some reading before you go to give you a feel for what you will see and experience. Here are some I enjoyed.

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

These are all by Indu Sandaresan
The Twentieth Wife
The Feast of Roses
The Splendor of Silence

Anything by Thrity Umrigar:
The Space Between Us
The Weight of Water

Ladies Coup by Anita Nair

Q & A by Vikas Swarup (now re-titled Slumdog Millionaire - the book from which the movie was made, but I thought it was much better)

For history of India's independence and the partition into India & Pakistan - Freedom at Midnight by Dominique LaPierre and Larry Collins. Reads like a novel.

Happy reading and have a fabulous time! I love to read, but I agree with Jaya that you will be so caught up in the experience and everything there is to see that you won't have time to read!

There are so many wonderful novels on India. What comes to mind are:
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
A Journey with Elsa Cloud by Leila Hadley

A informative non-fiction book on the rise and future of the world's largest democracy is
Planet India by Mira Kamdar. I expect you will have an amazing trip because that is how India is....amazing.

Skibumette, have a great trip!

Yes, "White TIger" is excellent, and funny! I purchased a copy in Hindi and gave it to our driver. Pres Obama just stayed at the New Delhi hotel mentioned in the book. (So did i--but NOT with the POTUS )

"God of Small Things" is so sad, but descriptive settings of the Vembanad Lake area of Kerala.

From the incredible forum about Indredible India are books about India, and other related topics too:

http://www.indiamike.com/india/books...rience-t29848/

As much as I love the Kindle device, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated that many of the books I want to buy cost MORE for the Kindle than to buy the paperback. Something to do with letting the publisher set the price, but it's infuriating. Obviously, it's less expensive send a book electronically vice printing and shipping it - not to mention more ecologically sound.
Grrrr.

Several of these sound really good! Thanks for the input.

Althom, Thanks for the warning about Kindle prices. I'm going to rethink buying one.

Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" could keep you occupied for your entire trip (I think it's over 1000 pages long). It covers several decades in India's 20th century history, so you might find it interesting.

These are great suggestions. Don't forget "Toss of a Lemon" for a "slice" of south Indian Brahamins.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is my favorite writer for novels set in India. She's also collaborated with the Merchant-Ivory team on movies.

A Suitable Boy is the perfect Kindle book. I just lugged the 1500 pages around Asia and Australia. A Fine Balance is a great glimpse into Indian culture but so so sad!

Ah, my suggestions have already been suggested, with much the same commentary (<i>God of Small Things</i> exquisite, beautifully described setting, so sad; Rohinton Mistry; <i>Shantaram</i>, another lengthy book but very engaging...). Many years ago I enjoyed the novella <i>Train to Pakistan</i>, which takes place immediately after Partition.

I have to add, it's a huge misconception that just because digital publishing doesn't incur printing/shipping costs it's so much less expensive. Bandwidth does cost $$, and the device providers (Amazon, Sony, B&N) charge the publishers for it. Publishers also incur a cost to adapt the content for the eInk readers. And unlike printing houses -- that, having been around for hundreds of years, costs have come down and many companies exist -- there are currently only a few service providers for ereaders and a stranglehold on the process. (For example, there is only 1 company that does the conversion process for all Sony and B&N devices and all the publishers have to deal with them.)

Anyway, IMO that's still not a good reason for Amazon to charge so much! CaliNurse (and others), you may want to look into the other devices: Sony, for example, has a relationship with public libraries so you can take out ebooks on loan.

Ggreen ,thank you!

Some good reccos so far. I also love William Darylrumple, but would say to read his newest book <i>Nine Lives</i> first, as IMO it is his best book; and also as it is about religion, which is so central to Indian life, it is a good introduction to India generally. I also would put <i>Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors</i> by Lizzie Collingham at the top of my list. Part history book, part cookbook. You may not look at food in quite the same way again. (Just don’t mention to people in Hyderabad that bryani is not an Indian dish….) There is Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s <i>The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian</i> which provides great detail of rural village life even if you may not agree with the author’s views on some subjects. The poetry and fiction of Rabidranath Tagore is known to many Indians, esp in Bengal, and might be of interest. (There are also some drawings of his in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi which is worth a visit on its own.) If your trip includes Jaipur, then you would want to read <i>A Princess Remembers</i> by Gayatri Devi,. This is the autobiography of the third and favorite wife of the late Maharajah of Jaipur. She was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. When Jackie Kennedy went to India in 1961 or so, she stayed with the Princess and in the pictures, <i>Jackie</i> looks dowdy compared to her.

Some other reccos are below.

I also would say that you might want to hold off on buying more books until you get to India. There are many good bookstores here, and books are quite inceptive. You can also discover the Indian authors. Places like the Khan Market in New Delhi have several excellent bookshops (you can even but leather-bound editions of best sellers) and most hotels have small but good bookshops. There are chains like Oxford Books (see http://www.oxfordbookstore.com) and if you are in Mumbai, there are street stalls selling used and current books at very good prices (go to the Flora Fountain and Churchgate areas).

R.K. Narayan, <i>The English Teacher; Malgudi Days</i>, or any of his books, especially the 12 novels based in a town he created called Malgudi, which he places somewhere south of Chennai.

David Davidar, <i>The House of Blue Mangoes</i>, set in south Indian around WWI and after Indian independence.

Kiran Desai, <i>The Inheritance of Loss</i>, sad and moving tale set in Bengal.

Anita Desai, <i>Fasting Feasting; Baumgartner's Bombay</i>, others. Ms Desai has written several books and short stories on different aspects of life in a modernizing India.

E.M. Foster, <i>Passage to India</i>. Classic book about the clash between mores of the British Raj and Indians in early to mid 19th century India. He has written many other novels and short stories on various parts of the world. One of his finest books is The Razor's Edge, and part of its plot based in India.

Paul Scott, <i>The Raj Quartet</i>.. It is the story of an English family living in a hill station in north Indian before and during WWII. You will learn a lot about the British rule in India, good and bad. In 4 volumes so it is not for everyone.

Rudyard Kipling, <i>Plain Tales from the Hills; Kim; Jungle Book</i>; many other novels. Many are set in what is now Pakistan.

Jhumpa Lahri, <i>Interpreter of Maladies; The Namesake</i>. These books are not about India so much as there are about the Indian immigrant's experience in the US. Interesting to see how she interprets US culture.

Edward Luce <i>In Spite of the Gods</i>. An engaging analysis of modern India, good background for understanding the current political situation and how India views itself in the larger world.

Alexander Frater, <i>Chasing the Monsoon</i>. The author follows the monsoon from its initial breaking point in Kerala all the way up and thorough India. The book will give you an idea of how important the monsoon is to the culture and economy of India.

Suketu Mehta, <i>Maximum City</i>. This is a non-fiction account of life in Mumbai today. Somewhat eye-opening as to the level of organized crime there, but interesting.

V.S. Naipaul, <i>India A Wounded Civilization; Among the Believers</i>. A brilliant thinker and writer, he poses questions about Indian life as well as the worlds major religions and their role in modern culture.

Eric Newby, <i>A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush; Slowly Down the Ganges</i>. The first is a hysterical and quite famous book about the author's misadventures in Pakistan. The second is a description of a trip along most of the Ganges river, very interesting.

Elisabeth Bumiller, <i>May you Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons</i>. This is an older book, but still valid I think. She is a former journalist with the <i>Washington Post</i> who lived in India for a few years. The book is a description of women's lives in India.

Mark Tully, <i>No Full Stops in India; Heart of India</i>. Again, these are older books, but it is hard to beat his insight. He was the BBC correspondent in India for about 30 years and still lives in Delhi.

Anne Morrow, <i>Maharajahs of India</i>. This is from 1986 and may be out of print, but you can often find it in Indian book shops. It gives fascinating details about the lives of the fabulously wealthy maharajas of India, who lost all their power in and most of their wealth in 1974.

<i>Travellers' Tales Guides: India</i>. This company prints books which are excerpts of writings by many authors on the particular country. This book is a nice broad overview of authors' observations of India over the centuries. Travellers' Guides does similar books for most countries in Asia.

<i>"Culture Shock!” India"</i> Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company . This book gives a fairly comprehensive and in my view accurate picture of culture and customs in India. The books are part of the Culture Shock! series of books published by this company for many countries.

Cicerone, Thanks for a great list. I also read Elisabeth Bumiller's May you Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, which I bought in India. It was really excellent and I wondered how much has changed since she wrote it ten years ago.

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