This is cheating

because I have not read any of these books, but trust Johann's judgment. Here is his list:

Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" : all right, it's 1,350 pages but that won't scare you: the only regret you'll have is that the book ends at all. It is a family chronicle set in post-Independence India, and deals with matters social, cultural, religious, and political close to ordinary Indian people's hearts. A must-read. Seth is a poet who lives in London, and the novel contains some poetry, very enjoyable. I have another book by him, "An Equal Music", which I didn't enjoy nearly as much.

Gita Mehta's "Raj" : a novel about a woman coming of age at a princely court in pre-Independence India. It's a work of historical fiction, very well written, in a fluent style, describing fictional characters against a factual background. It offers a fascinating view of the many, unexpected dilemmas facing India (which was never fully under the "Raj": throughout the British period, independent kingdoms remained in existence).

Amitav Ghosh's "The Glass Palace" : a three-generation family chronicle novel set in Mandalay, in present-day Burma. From a literary viewpoint less impressive than Seth's "A Suitable Boy", but equally enjoyable.

Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" : this book won the 1997 Booker Prize, not that I am guided by such, but it IS extremely well written : a devastating story that deals mercilessly with the absurdities of India's caste system and the injustices of its institutions. The novel is largely told from the viewpoint of two siblings who remember incidents in their youth which pursue them into adulthood, and the characters - some of them as eccentric as they get - are truly masterfully portrayed. I have read the book twice over, with a short time span in between, and envy anyone who will read it for the first time.
While Ms. Roy keeps her convictions largely out of this, her first novel, she is rabidly anti-American, a fact I discovered later when I read a second book of hers, a political tract about the World Bank's funding of large dams in the Third World - a subject more deserving of cool (if negative) analysis than the pamphleteering tract she wrote on it. I threw both the second book and the author (metaphorically speaking) out of the window, but I hold on to The God of Small Things, which deals exclusively with India. Disregard the author's iniquities and read it - you won't regret it.

Indra Sinha's "The Death of Mr. Love" : a novel set in postwar and modern Britain and India, cleverly commenting on both while pursuing a detective/mystery theme. This novel is worth reading, but it left less of an impression on me.

Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss" : much-acclaimed winner of the 2006 Booker Prize. I read raving reviews of it (not necessarily a guarantee of a good book, in my experience, but there you are) and bought it... at a larrrg storrrr called Barrrderrrrs in Phoenix. I will let you know what it's like (I am now finishing "Manhunt" by James L. Swanson). Kiran Desai is the daughter of the acclaimed author Anita Desai - I have a collection of her short stories under the title "Diamond Dust". Her favorite theme is "Eastern versus Western culture" and she explores it well.

Anita Rau Badami's "The Hero's Walk" is another favorite of mine, a very moving story of a grumpy old couple in a dusty, lonely seaside town who unexpectedly get their granddaughter thrust in their lap, after the death of their estranged daughter who lived in Canada. The novel deals with pain, loss, regret, bitterness but also reconciliation and hope - it is one of the very best novels, Indian or otherwise, I have ever read, and I would never part with it. Its subject is universal, not confined to India, but its setting in an alien (to me and you) culture makes it all the more compelling. If you want to read only one book by an Indian author, let it be this one.

Hari Kunzru's "The Impressionist" is the one we found in Tucson. This book, too, deals with the absurdities of the British Raj, in its tumultuous final years, but this time the theme is explored through a tragicomic lens. Fun and riveting to read.

Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" : a well-written novel by this Bengali author, about one man's search for his identity, between his roots in India and his life in America. Not a book that leaves a lasting impression (like "The Hero's Walk") but again a universal theme set against a fascinating background. A good read.

The above is my little library of (just 10) Indian authors and (just 11) books, more impressive in quality than in quantity, but then that is my philosophy. I am fully conscious of the limitations of the above mini-reviews, because taste in books is as individual - perhaps more so - than taste in wines. I find it nearly impossible to buy books for other people - my choice on the Battle of the Bulge for John was a stroke of luck really - and other people have difficulty buying books for me. To be honest, I get it wrong myself occasionally...

Johann is a banker-type in Belgium and delightfully funny and chatty. My mother just finished "A Suitable Boy" and liked it tremendously..and she reads for the writing more than I do (I still read for the story mostly).

Olga