DREAMING IN HINDI by Katherine Russell Rich

An Oprah-validated book, “Dreaming in Hindi” is a fascinating account of a middle-aged American’s woman’s foray not only into India and learning Hindi, but into living in small-town India, and in a joint family to boot. Part auto-biography, part academic treatise on linguistics and neurology, full of humour and self-mockery, …

THE DOUBLE COMFORT SAFARI CLUB by Alexander McCall Smith

The eleventh novel in the delightful No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, “The Double Comfort Safari Club” takes the reader on yet another series of sleuthing adventures across Botswana, with the charming, compassionate, and very traditionally built Precious Ramotswe. With his elegant and affectionate prose, Alexander McCall Smith evokes the sights …

THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING by Tarquin Hall

The second book in what one hopes will be a long series of Vish Puri detective novels, showcases the author’s love and obvious affection for India, especially Delhi, and his eye for the wildly off-beat. The man who died laughing really did. At the Laughing Club on Rajpath. And from …

THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT by Tarquin Hall

India finally has her own Precious Ramotswe. Her own home-grown, uncomplicated, tell-it-as-it-is private detective.  Punjabi by nature, by appetite and by his larger than life personality. Meet Vish Puri, resident of Gurgaon, chilli-grower, Sandown-cap-lover and solver of crimes in Delhi. Vish Puri is a clever, intuitive detective, of that there …

CALL ME DAN by Anish Trivedi

This début novel of Mumbai-based Anish Trivedi is well-written, sharply-observed, and a great read. The main character, Gautam, is a 30-year old lower middle-class young man, still living at home with his parents and sister.  Their life is frugal, traditional and distinctly joy-less. To his parents’ despair, Gautam doesn’t have …