23 Books of 2021

PRATIKA YASHASWI

One of the best things about all the wonderful work that came out this year is that most of it was great, and a lot of it came from talented women writing from heretofore quieter parts of the diaspora. We have work by the South Asian Malaysian diaspora with Fragile Monsters by Catherine Menon; and a collection of stories by Indo-Caribbean authors, who come from 150 years of history.

They ask harder questions of readers and pit them against some incredibly difficult emotions. Questions of race, caste, gender, sexuality, religion and discrimination come up a lot in all genres but are dealt with grace, never preaching.

Science fiction and fantasy is a particularly thriving genre, where we have South Asians recognizing their unique place in history, where pandemics, climate change and the rise of nationalist governments is meeting in a world that looks more and more like the apocalypse with every passing day. Yet fiction does one thing better than anything else, even as it forces us to contend with ugly truths: it shows us our humanity and asks us to be better. This year has been a great one for writing, with work that ultimately serves to further the limits of what fiction can achieve. We’re warning you! The books on this list are absolutely irresistible.

ADULT LITERARY FICTION

SPARKS LIKE STARS by

Nadia Hashimi

What tipped Afghanistan into decades of conflict? This is the question that inspired pediatrician and author Nadia Hashimi to write this book. Aged 10, Sitara Zamani, the only surviving member of a prominent Afghan family murdered during a coup in 1978 Kabul, is rescued and adopted by an American diplomat. She goes on to grow up in America and becomes a renowned surgeon. Thirty years later she sees the man who may have murdered her entire family. What next?

THE STARTUP WIFE by Tahmima Anam Newlyweds Asha and Cyrus build an app that replaces religious rituals and soon find themselves running one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. While the app is a dual effort, the spotlight is on Cyrus, and this weighs heavily on Asha. Will the marriage survive? The book is a feminist satire addressing startup culture and modern partnership. This wickedly funny, gimlet-eyed take on startup culture, marriage and workaholism is planted firmly in the times, where technology has changed the way we live and we love.

SERENA SINGH FLIPS THE SCRIPT by Sonya Lalli 36 and working at a top ad agency in D.C., American Sikh Serena Singh is smart, self-reliant and knows what she wants from life: Not marriage and kids. As the novel carries on, new friendships are formed, and Serena’s stance is challenged. How does she hold up? Going child-free and remaining single are choices that are becoming more and more common, and less and less viewed with stigma—but they come with their own complexities and fears. This warm and relatable tale lays them out as Serena Singh learns that even to be her own person, it’s alright to let a few people in. HANA KHAN CARRIES ON by

Uzma Jalaluddin

Hana Khan and her family run a struggling halal restaurant. That seems slated for closure when a flashy new competitor shows up. Hana is a fighter, not one to give up, and turns to her anonymous podcast for support from her loyal listeners. Until a hate-motivated attack on their neighborhood complicates the situation further. Throw in Hana’s growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival business and you’ve got a South Asian Canadian You’ve Got Mail. The novel is set to be developed into a TV script by Mindy Kaling.

MY SWEET GIRL by Amanda Jayatissa Paloma — who isn’t really a sweet girl — thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, but when Arun, a man she sublets a room in her apartment to, finds out her darkest secret, she struggles to cover it up until she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there’s no body — and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place. Packed with tension and described by readers as a slowcrawl through increasing suspense, it’s a stunningly intelligent debut.

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TWO TIMES REMOVED

by Tiara Jade Chutkhan

The Indo Caribbean diaspora is two times removed from their home country of India: once, when their ancestors arrived in the Caribbean as indentured laborers, and another when they left the Caribbean for the states and other parts of the world. “Two Times Removed” is a curation of 16 short stories written by the new generation of IndoCaribbean storytellers exploring adolescence, relationships, trauma, family, identity and more, bringing to life the experiences of the modern day Indo-Caribbean. WHEREABOUTS by Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri’s work is among the very few debuts to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. So there is much excitement whenever she publishes something new, such as this work, that comes after nearly a decade. Written in Italian and translated into English, “Whereabouts” explores movement and stasis, and the dance between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. It is a genre-bending, barrier breaking book that is claimed to be a newer height in Lahiri’s writing.

BLUE SKINNED GODS by S.J. Sindu In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin, and is called Kalki. His father, claiming him to be a reincarnation of the Hindu god Lord Vishnu, starts an ashram, and pilgrims from India and abroad flock to pay their respects. With such great proclamations weighing on his small shoulders, the boy grows up. The story takes you across continents, exploring ethnic, gender, and sexual identities, as it tells you about Kalki’s life, and the impact of his father’s lies on him and the question of faith.

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NON-FICTION/ 9 WOULD I LIE TO YOU? by Aliya Ali-Afzal Here comes a fresh, hilarious and fast paced story about a woman who’s fought to keep up appearances. It took a few years, but now the snobbish mothers at Faiza’s kids’ school, who mistook her for the nanny treat her as one of their own. But keeping up appearances costs 11 MEMOIR Faiza her husband Tom’s savings of £ 75,000, which he’s looking for now that he’s lost his wellpaying job in finance. With six weeks to put things right, she has to ask herself: how much more should she sacrifice to protect her family?

A PASSAGE NORTH by Anuk Arudpragasam On the 2021 Booker Prize shortlist is this masterful work to come to terms with life in the wake of the devastation of Sri Lanka’s 30-year civil war. Krishan receives the message that his grandmother’s caretaker, Rani, has died under unexpected circumstances — found at the bottom of a well in her village in the north of Sri Lanka, her neck broken by the fall. As he journeys from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for Rani’s funeral, so begins a revealing tale of longing and loss. Arudpragasam is a writer to watch.

SEE NO STRANGER: A MEMOIR AND MANIFESTO OF REVOLUTIONARY LOVE by Valarie Kaur On the lines of Gloria Steinem’s “On Self Esteem,” renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer Valarie Kaur calls for revolutionary love, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. In the wake of 9/11, Kaur experienced loss, xenophobia, police violence and sexual assault, both through herself and her community. Recounting her life’s momentous experiences and applying the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur argues for love as an active, public, and revolutionary force.

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ANTIMAN: A HYBRID MEMOIR by Rajiv Mohabir Winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, “Antiman” is a stunning genre-blending memoir tackling questions of caste, ethnicity, and sexuality as it explores the author’s experiences as an Indo-Guyanese queer poet and immigrant to the United States. Full of poetry, prose in distinctive dialects, myth, and family lore, Antiman is a must-read in queer literature, by a breakout talent worth noting by all.

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RUMOURS OF SPRING: A GIRLHOOD IN KASHMIR by Farah

Bashir

A coming of age memoir of growing up in 1990s Kashmir, shattering paradise amidst the Himalayas — this book is noted as a difficult read. Not because it’s not written with beauty, but because it is written with so much of it, about a most terrifying period in Kashmir’s history, one that stretches on into the present. It’s a book that promises to break your heart.

THE NUTMEG’S CURSE

by Amitav Ghosh

In 16th century Europe, a handful of nutmeg could buy you a house and by the 18th century, all nutmegs originated from a couple of small volcanic islands east of Java. In the hands of European conquerors, the communities and the islands themselves would come to pay a high price for access to this precious commodity. The story of nutmeg, according to the author, is revealing of a wider colonial mindset which justifies the exploitation of human life and the natural environment, which dominates geopolitics to this day. An excellent work that brings to life the true tragedy of the current climate crisis and asks for better from us as humans.

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HISTORICAL FICTION

FRAGILE MONSTERS

by Catherine Menon

A tale from another neck of the world where the diaspora stretches: Malaysia, where World War II had reached, where there was an Emergency and the Japanese occupation. A slow read trudging through the family history of an Indian family from rural Malaysia from the 1920s to the present, “Fragile Monsters” explores what happens when secrets fester through the generations. With a daughtergrandmother relationship at its heart, it’s an excellent debut by an Australian-British author with roots in Malaysia.

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CHINA ROOM by Sunjeev Sahota A transfixing addition to the literary canon of diasporic work, “China Room” goes back to 1920s rural Punjab to tell the story of a veiled young bride who does not know who her husband is. It then lurches forward to the summer of 1999, where a young man arrives at his uncle’s house in Punjab to ride out his withdrawal from a dangerous addiction. Based on Sahota’s own family history.

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THE BOMBAY PRINCE

by Sujata Massey

In the third installment of an award-winning series, it is November 1921 in Bombay, and The Prince of Wales, future ruler of India, is arriving to begin a four-month tour. An 18-year-old Parsi student Freny Cuttingmaster falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college. Just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule, India’s only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring justice to Freny’s family.

SCI-FI/FANTASY

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RISE OF THE RED HAND

by Olivia Chadha

Imagine the apocalyptic world post climate change. Now imagine that in South Asia, with a ruthlessly technocratic government that sacrifices its poorest citizens to build their climate-controlled utopia, and an underground revolutionary organization set to change the world. Two polar individuals with the same goal: to take down the government. “Rise of the Red Hand,” the first installment of The Mechanist’s series promises much by way of imagination and commentary and delivers a punch.

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BIG BAD WOLF by Suleikha Snyder

THE JASMINE THRONE by Tasha Suri A princess vengeful, imprisoned. A maidservant priestess in possession of forbidden magic, looking to find her family. The two join hands to save their empire from the hands of their evil king. Set in historical India and inspired by its ancient mythology, “The Jasmine Throne” is a spectacular fantastical tale filled with sapphic yearning and delectably imagined backdrops and settings. A must read.

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GOLD DIGGERS

by Sanjena Sathian

An Indian American magical realist comingof-age story spanning four epochs, “Gold Diggers” is an incredibly exciting debut that hits its themes on the nose. Anjali and her daughter, Anita are secretly trying to brew an alchemical potion from stolen gold, that harnesses the ambition of the jewelry’s original owner. Anita needs a little push to get into the Harvard. But when Anita’s neighbor, Neil gets to know what they are doing, he wants some for himself — and the ensuing chaos results in a tragedy that rips their community apart. Set to be turned into a series by Mindy Kaling.

Joe Peluso has blood on his hands. He took out the mobsters responsible for killing his foster brother, and now he’s got enemies in NYC’s supernatural underworld. Lawyer and psychologist Neha Ahluwalia knows Joe is guilty, but she’s determined to help him craft a solid defense. When a payback hit goes wrong, Neha’s forced to make a choice: help Joe escape or leave him to his fate. Before long they’re on the run together. With all the angst and agony of a punishing world, and jam-packed with steamy lovemaking, “Big Bad Wolf” promises to be a gratifying read.

MACHINEHOOD

by S.B. Divya

It is the year 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard, is about to retire when her client is killed in front of her by The Machinehood, a mysterious terrorist group. Determined to take them down, Welga is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood, and what do they really want? THE BOY WITH FIRE by Aparna Verma This book shows a world teetering on the 23 edge of war, and the people who push it over. With three lead characters, each fleshed out with razor sharpness, each needing to make some brutally cruel decisions that put other lives at stake. There’s genocide, terrorism, wrathful women, vengeful gods, and man’s battle against fate. Inspired by the geopolitical tensions in India, as well as the rise of nationalistic leaders in both America and India, “The Boy with Fire” promises to deliver on plot as well as the themes it chooses to tackle.