Books by Vikram Seth
“It’s a slow read, but once you get into it, it has all those pleasures of a really big novel. You lose track, come back to it, skip a few pages, go back, fill in the blanks as best you can. It’s a huge house through which you can happily wander. That’s a quality I like. And Seth really loves his characters. He feels for them, perhaps more than Rushdie feels for his. It’s semi-autobiographical—it’s about his parents and family at one level, but it’s more than that too. And the writing is very elegant, very beautiful. There are descriptions of shoemaking, of Indian raga being sung as the monsoon breaks, of upper-class kids flirting at society parties in Calcutta.” Read more...
The Best Historical Novels Set in India
Ruchir Joshi, Novelist
“It’s not a remarkable story, but it’s a universal story of people in their twenties and early thirties. It captures that period of life when you are free and adult but freedom can feel very heavy and frightening, that moment when you are still innocent and vulnerable, open to the world and quite alone as well. You’re also trying to discover yourself and who you are. It’s a kind of fuzzy moment, when you’re anything and everything and nothing at the same time. It’s a very confusing moment. Seth captures that confusion and a certain loneliness of the soul which is why we search for love, beautifully. That is the genius of the book – its universality.” Read more...
Radhika Jha, Novelist
Interviews where books by Vikram Seth were recommended
The Best Indian Novels, recommended by Radhika Jha
Like all great books, India’s best novels are worth reading not just because of what they show about India, but what they reveal about the human condition. Here Radhika Jha, author of four critically acclaimed books, talks us through five important Indian novels and novelists and explains why it’s so important that fiction isn’t just about personal experience.
The Best San Francisco Novels, recommended by Armistead Maupin
The author of the Tales of the City novel series, Armistead Maupin, tells us about San Francisco’s spirit of place, and the books that best capture the city’s sense of possibility and noirish feel. He recommends the best novels set in San Francisco.
The Best Historical Novels Set in India, recommended by Ruchir Joshi
India’s complex history—specifically, its turbulent 20th-century—lends itself well to ambitious historical fiction, says the filmmaker and novelist Ruchir Joshi, whose latest book is set in Second World War-era Calcutta. Here he recommends five of the best historical novels set in India, including beloved modern classics by Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth.
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1
Les Misérables
by Victor Hugo -
2
Homeland (Patria)
by Fernando Aramburu and Alfred MacAdam (translator) -
3
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler -
4
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust -
5
The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu & translated by Edward G. Seidensticker -
6
Clarissa
by Samuel Richardson
Long Novels
Long Novels
Shorter is better is the mantra of the digital age, but for some of us, there is no greater pleasure than reading a really long novel. Here we’ve listed some of the novels recommended on Five Books that are at least 400,000 words long, from literary classics to potboilers.
Ed Smith on My Life and Luck
The former international cricketer, author of a book on luck, and England’s national selector tells us about the chance happenings that have helped shape his life, for better or worse
