Updated
Novels by women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and from the diaspora. Several won or were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Indian American novels have their own list.
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The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
Twins in Kerala in 1969, and the rules about who can love whom. Won the Booker Prize.
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Clear Light of Day
Anita Desai
Two sisters meet again in their family's old house in Delhi and go back over the summer of 1947. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
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The Inheritance of Loss
Kiran Desai
A retired judge and his granddaughter in the Himalayas, and his cook's son, working in restaurant kitchens in New York without papers. Won the Booker Prize.
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Home Fire
Kamila Shamsie
Three British Pakistani siblings after their brother joins ISIS. A modern retelling of Antigone. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction.
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A Golden Age
Tahmima Anam
A widow in Dhaka protects her two grown children during the 1971 war that created Bangladesh.
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Island of a Thousand Mirrors
Nayomi Munaweera
Two girls, one Sinhala and one Tamil, grow up on opposite sides of Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Burnt Sugar
Avni Doshi
A woman in Pune has to care for the mother who neglected her, now losing her memory. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
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A Burning
Megha Majumdar
A Muslim girl in Kolkata is arrested for a Facebook post after a terrorist attack, and two people who could help her have their own reasons not to.
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The Space Between Us
Thrity Umrigar
A wealthy Parsi widow in Mumbai and the woman who has cleaned her house for years.
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The Palace of Illusions
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Mahabharata told by Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava brothers.
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The Henna Artist
Alka Joshi
A henna artist in 1950s Jaipur builds a business with the city's wealthy women, until her younger sister arrives.