Books by Upamanyu Chatterjee
“There have been so many Indian novels in English. This, I think, is perhaps the best. This is the story of a man called Agastya Sen, who is a civil servant. He’s a member of the elite Indian Administrative Service. When you become an IAS officer, you’re basically the king of a district in India, you have all the accoutrements of power that the British created and enjoyed. There are retinues of staff at your disposal.Upamanyu Chatterjee finds the comedy in this. He doesn’t spare anyone…I’d say it’s the most comically brilliant English novel to come out of India in the past 70 years.” Read more...
The best books on Contemporary India
Kapil Komireddi, Journalist
Interviews where books by Upamanyu Chatterjee were recommended
The best books on Contemporary India, recommended by Kapil Komireddi
As the world’s biggest democracy, India could be an inspiring example of how a multiethnic, multilingual country with many different religions can come together to form a vibrant state with equality enshrined in its constitution. But all that is in danger of going down the drain, as the country transforms into a brutally exclusionary Hindu-supremacist state under the leadership of Narendra Modi, says Kapil Komireddi, essayist and author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India. Here, he talks us through how the country got to where it is now and recommends five books that present a “comprehensive picture” of contemporary India.
South Asian Literature, recommended by Ahmede Hussain
The acclaimed author recommends the most exciting new writing out of India and South Asia, including accounts of 9/11 from a Pakistani perspective and an emigré’s return to an unfamiliar Bangladesh.
