1. The Bone Clocks
David Mitchell Hachette
A new David Mitchell book is an event, at par with a Christopher Nolan release. Not much is known about it, but we bet the bookstores are already planning their September window displays.
2. Aarushi
Avirook Sen Penguin
Who did it? Journalist Avirook Sen draws a superb portrait of the young girl who was brutally killed in May 2008, the aftermath of her death, and tries to answer the biggest question of all, which still polarises the nation.
3. The Past as Present
Romila Thapar Aleph
In the correct interpretation of what has gone before lies the possibility of an accurate portrayal of the present. No one is better equipped to cast an astute eye over both than one of India’s most astute historians, especially at this unfamiliar time of growing fundamentalism and intolerance.
4. Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Runaway Power of India’s Largest Democracy
Simon Denyer Bloomsbury
Between the Nehru-Gandhi family and Arvind Kejriwal, entrenched corruption and forces demanding change, India stands at a crucial juncture in its history. Former India bureau chief of The Washington Post Simon Denyer examines what the tussle means for India and the world.
5. Engglishhh: Fictional Dispatches for a Hyperreal Nation
Altaf Tyrewala HarperCollins
A language based on numerology, a fast-food chain mascot and a purveyor of porn are just some of the elements of the new novel from the man who gave us the biting No God in Sight.
6. Journey Under the Midnight Sun
Keigo Higashino Hachette
From the author of the cult Japanese hits The Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint comes a new inter-generational mystery around the unsolved murder of a man in Osaka in 1973. Fans are already counting days.
7. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda: An Almanac
I Allan Sealy Aleph
A patch of 433 square yards—the size of a family home in the Himalayan foothills—can contain the universe and enough material for a meditation on work, family, nature, society and time, when the pen is wielded by the hugely underrated I Allen Sealy, of The Trotter-Nama and The Everest Hotel fame.
8. India Psychedelic: The Rocking ’60s and ’70s
Sidharth Bhatia HarperCollins
‘Love Me Do’ changed the free world, but till date there hasn’t been an assessment of what it meant to be young in India in the two crucial decades of the 20th century. Respected journalist Sidharth Bhatia pays a long overdue tribute to Indian pop culture through its politics, society, fashion and, of course, music.
9. Seven Days in the Life of Syria
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(This story appears in the 10 January, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)