Thriller set in Bangkok and Ko Samet
Ten Great Books Set In SOUTH INDIA
15th February 2024
Ten Great Books set in South India. South India is a world away from the frenetic atmosphere of the North. In addition to the well known tourist hotspots – the Chinese fishing nets in Kochi, the Kerala backwaters, and the majestic temple cities of Madurai and Tanjure, there are many off the beaten track places to explore in South India.
Here we look at ten of our favourite books set in this vibrant part of the country.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese – KERALA and MADRAS
‘One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!’ Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water follows a family in southern India that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning – and in Kerala, water is everywhere.
At the turn of the century a twelve-year-old girl, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this poignant beginning, the young girl and future matriarch – known as Big Ammachi – will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life, full of the joys and trials of love and the struggles of hardship.
A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humour, deep emotion and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
Blue-Skinned Gods by S J Sindu – TAMIL NADU
In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy named Kalki is born with blue skin. He believes that he is the Hindu god Vishnu and that he can perform miracles. The truth, however, is much darker…
As Kalki struggles to extract himself from under the thumb of his controlling father, he must also reconcile with the idea that everything he’s ever been told might not be true. When his father drags him on a tour to America, Kalki seizes his chance to explore what life as an ordinary man might be like.
Pulled between India and America, and his father’s web of control, Kalki must find his true place in the world.
The Coffer Dams by Kamala Markandaya – SOUTH INDIA
Clinton, founder and head of a firm of international engineers,arrives in India to build a dam, bringing with him his young wife,
Helen, and a strong team of aides and skilled men. They are faced with a formidable challenge, which involves working in daunting mountain and jungle terrain, within a time schedule dictated by the extreme tropical weather. Setbacks occur which bring into focus fundamental differences in the attitudes to life and death of the British bosses and the Indian workers. A timely reminder of the British contempt for Indian lives and for nature.
Check out this piece by Markandaya’s daughter on the publisher’s website : https://www.hoperoadpublishing.com/the-coffer-dams-blog
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian – BANGALORE (BENGALURU)
Nestled between the luxury high-rise blocks of Bangalore is an ironically named slum called Heaven. It’s here that five girls – Muslim, Christian and Hindu; gay and straight – forge a binding friendship.
But when Heaven is threatened by government bulldozers, the girls must come together to save the home they’ve built from nothing.
Sparkling with passion and humour, A People’s History of Heaven is the story of these unforgettable young women and their determination, not only to survive, but to triumph in a city that would prefer to forget them.
A Madras Miasma by Brian Stoddart – MADRAS (CHENNAI)
Madras in the 1920s. The British are slowly losing the grip on the subcontinent. The end of the colonial enterprise is in sight and the city on India’s east coast is teeming with intrigue. A grisly murder takes place against the backdrop of political tension and Superintendent Le Fanu, a man of impeccable investigative methods, is called in to find out who killed a respectable young British girl and dumped her in a canal, her veins clogged with morphine.
As Le Fanu, a man forced to keep his own personal relationship a secret for fear of scandal in the face British moral standards, begins to investigate, he quickly slips into a quagmire of Raj politics, rebellion and nefarious criminal activities that threaten not just to bury his case but the fearless detective himself.
The first Detective Le Fanu Adventure, A Madras Miasma, tells a classic tale of murder, corruption and intrigue with a sharp eye on British colonial politics and race relations. It is a story that, like its main protagonist, has its heart firmly in the right place.
The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar – MADURAI
Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son – or worse, bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born – murdered before they have a chance to live. The fate of her children has never been in her hands. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love.
Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret, one she’s been keeping from her parents for far too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai – the first in over ten years. Growing up in Australia, Nila knows very little about where she or her family came from, or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever…
Perfect for fans of Christy Lefteri and Delia Owens, The Daughters of Madurai is a moving and powerful debut from an unforgettable new voice.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy – KOTTAYAM
This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother’s factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt).
The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran – BANGALORE (BENGALURU)
Two families. One city. Too many secrets
Anand is a Bangalore success story: successful, well-married, rich. At least, that’s how he appears. But if his little factory is to grow, he needs land and money and, in the New India, neither of these is easy to find.
Kamala, Anand’s family’s maid, lives perilously close to the edge of disaster. She and her clever teenage son have almost nothing, and their small hopes for self-betterment depend on the contentment of Anand’s wife: a woman to whom whims come easily.
But Kamala’s son keeps bad company. Anand’s marriage is in trouble. And the murky world where crime and land and politics meet is a dangerous place for a good man, particularly one on whom the wellbeing of so many depends.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach – BANGALORE (BENGALURU)
Discover the Sunday Times bestselling novel that inspired the beloved hit film starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel and Penelope Wilton.
Enticed by advertisements for a luxury retirement home in India, a group of strangers leave England to begin a new life.
On arrival, however, they discover the palace is a shell of its former self, the staff are more than a little eccentric and the days of the Raj appear to be long gone.
But, as they soon discover, life and love can begin again, even in the most unexpected circumstances.
Previously published with the title These Foolish Things.
The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy – TAMIL NADU
Tamil Nadu, 1968. Village landlords rule over a feudal system that forces peasants to break their backs in the fields or suffer beatings as punishment. In the misery of their daily lives it is little wonder that the Communist Party begins to gain traction, a small spark of defiance spreading from villager to villager. As communities across the region begin to take a stand against the landlords, the landlords vow to break them; Party organizers suffer grisly deaths and the flow of food into the market-places dries up. But it only serves to make the villagers’ resistance burn more fiercely. Finally, the landlords descend on one village to set an example to the others…
Enjoy your books set in South India!
Tony for the TripFiction Team
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