Enjoy the latest Staff Picks blog from Ken Haigh. We wish Ken luck on his next pursuit as a volunteer ESL teacher to a small rural primary school in Tathang, West Sikkim. Sikkim is a small, mountainous state in the north of India, wedged between Nepal and Bhutan.
Ken's top Fiction set in India:
A Passage to India by E.M. Forester - The plot revolves around the mysterious events that happened on a picnic excursion to the Marabar Caves. Was Miss Quested really assaulted in the dark echoing cavern or did she imagine the whole episode? A tragedy of good intentions that exposes the hypocrisies of the British Raj.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie - The story of three children born at the stroke of midnight on the eve of India’s Independence. The narrator, Saleem, discovers that he can communicate telepathically with other children born at the same time who also have magical powers.
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi - A story about second chances set in northern India in 1955. Lakshmi, a young bride, runs away from her abusive husband to the city of Jaipur where she reinvents herself as the Henna Artist whose skills are sought by the wealthy of the city. Years later, her husband tracks her down accompanied by a little sister Lakshmi did not even know she had.
The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda - A favorite with book clubs, this novel follows the fortunes of two families, one from the slums of Mumbai, who must give up their daughter for adoption, and one from an affluent part of San Francisco, who are the girl’s adoptive parents. As the girl grows up, she feels caught between the two worlds, and travels to India on a journalism fellowship to learn more about her heritage.
The Hero’s Walk by Anita Rau Badami - Another story of an extended family, this time set in a village near Madras in southern India. When family patriarch Sripathi learns of his daughter’s death in Canada, he must fly to Vancouver to bring home a granddaughter he has never met. Sripathi had not approved of his daughter’s marriage to a white foreigner, and he must now try to understand a granddaughter who dislikes him and who refuses to speak.
If you have time, you might also try Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers. If you are a mystery fan, check out M.J. Carter’s The Strangler Vine.