One of my motivations in approaching my writing today is the desire to see the stories I grew up with as an Indian-American shared with a broader audience. Historical fiction should be ideal for exploring different cultures, but it can be hard for readers to connect with a vastly different culture. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen too many historical novels written from an insider’s point of view. But that seems to be changing. These are a few books from the South Asian diaspora that have impressed me, each for different reasons. I hope you enjoy!

Looking at Colonial India

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water hits many of my personal interests—medicine, colonialism, history, and south India. Readers who know Verghese’s Cutting for Stone will appreciate the physician-cum-author’s medical bent. But this book, which involves a cast of over a dozen characters and spans nearly a century, is infinitely more complicated. Verghese asks you to trust that the many details he gives you as he paints a tapestry out of the characters’ lives are worth reading. Spoiler: they are.

The story is set in Kerala, a state in southern India that is known for its seaside beaches and trade routes on the western side and its backwater canals further inland. This setting is key because the novel focuses on a family that suffers a very peculiar “affliction.” In each generation, one family member dies of drowning. With that tense backdrop, Verghese takes a look at how medicine, resources, and local beliefs sustain and hurt our characters over time. It’s a lengthy and sometimes slow read, but I felt like I was living alongside these characters the entire time.

Exploring Partition

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

I was only nine years old when the eponymous movie Gandhi came out, but I still remember the stark video of Partition. Two sets of people, Hindus and Sikhs in one line headed south and Muslims in one line headed north, were going home after winning independence from the British. I couldn’t imagine, even then, what it must have been like to leave everything you knew because your country, your homeland, had been torn apart by forces beyond your control.

The Night Diary resonated so strongly with me because its protagonist, 12-year-old Nisha, grapples with many of the questions I had after seeing that movie. Given a journal to capture her thoughts as she, her twin brother, her Hindu father, and their Muslim cook grapple with moving to a new part of a country she no longer understands, Nisha writes to her late Muslim mother. Her journey to understand the competing parts of her bloodline mirrors the struggles that India and Pakistan contended with as they grew into their post-colonial identities.

Past to Present to Future

The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara

On my first read of The Immortal King Rao, I could only describe the book as weird but compelling. Reading again, I was able to parse out why. On its surface, this book takes us through Rao’s childhood in India to his student days in the US, and then to his peak as an eccentric but brilliant world-class tech entrepreneur. But the story really digs into caste dynamics, the immigrant experience, climate change, and a dystopian future. Like I said, weird. But it works!

There is a lot packed in here. Some of the information, especially around the caste and immigrant pieces, is incredibly tongue-in-cheek. Honestly, I am not sure how much readers without intimate knowledge of the cultural dynamics will understand. The book reminds me of both Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger and Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, with their honesty and speculation. It’s not surprising that all three of these books are multi-award winners.

What About You?

What South Asian reads have captivated you?