Essential Modern Indian Fiction
Updated 2026-07-15 · 9 books
If you read only a handful of Indian novels, make them these. We've anchored the list on prize-winners and modern classics: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand, and Amitav Ghosh's sweeping historical fiction. Together they map the range of the modern Indian novel, from intimate family tragedy to epic history.
- 1
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
Read this if you want the one modern Indian novel everyone cites: Arundhati Roy's Booker-winning story of twins, family and forbidden love in Kerala.
Literary FictionWomen's FictionDalit - 2
Tomb of Sand
Geetanjali Shree
Read this if you want the International Booker winner: Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand follows an elderly woman who crosses the Partition border, playful and profound at once.
Indo-iranian philologyPartitionFeminism - 3
The Glass Palace
Amitav Ghosh
Read this if you love sweeping historical fiction: Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace traces a family across Burma, Bengal and Malaya through the fall of empire.
FictionHistoryHistorical fiction - 4
Gun Island
Amitav Ghosh
Read this if you want Ghosh at his most contemporary: Gun Island weaves myth, migration and climate change across Bengal, Los Angeles and Venice.
FictionPsychologicalEmigration and immigration - 5
Train To Pakistan
Khushwant Singh
Read this if you want the classic Partition novel: Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan renders the violence and humanity of 1947 in a single doomed village.
FictionGeneralIndia - 6
Ice-candy-man.
Bapsi Sidhwa
Read this if you want Partition through a child's eyes: Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man is fierce, funny and devastating in equal measure.
FictionHistoryHistorical - 7
Great Indian Novel
Shashi Tharoor
Read this if you like satire and epic: Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel retells the Mahabharata as 20th-century Indian political history.
AdaptationsFictionHistory - 8
Funny boy
Shyam Selvadurai
Read this if you want a landmark coming-of-age story: Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy follows a young gay boy amid Sri Lanka's Tamil-Sinhalese tensions.
FictionGay menYoung men - 9
Ladies coupé
Anita Nair
Read this if you want a beloved contemporary favourite: Anita Nair's Ladies Coupé follows six women sharing a night train and their life stories.
Women travelersSingle womenFiction
At a glance
| # | Book | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy |
| 2 | Tomb of Sand | Geetanjali Shree |
| 3 | The Glass Palace | Amitav Ghosh |
| 4 | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh |
| 5 | Train To Pakistan | Khushwant Singh |
| 6 | Ice-candy-man. | Bapsi Sidhwa |
| 7 | Great Indian Novel | Shashi Tharoor |
| 8 | Funny boy | Shyam Selvadurai |
| 9 | Ladies coupé | Anita Nair |
Frequently asked
What is the best modern Indian novel to start with?
Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things is the most common starting point: it won the 1997 Booker Prize and remains the defining modern Indian novel in English. From there, Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace and Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand widen the picture.
Which modern Indian book won the International Booker Prize?
Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand (translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell) won the International Booker Prize in 2022, the first novel translated from an Indian language to do so.
Prefer a plain-text version of this list? You can find one here.