Historical fiction books from India
Recommended historical fiction books (32)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from India for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
21.
The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar EN
Description:
Madurai, 1992. Janani, a poor young mother, is told she is useless if she can't produce a son. She is allowed to keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born and murdered. But Janani can't forget the daughters she was never allowed to love. Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret. But before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip there. What she learns about her family changes her forever. This is a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, and the power of love.
22.
The Enchantress of Florence : A Novel by Salman Rushdie EN
Description:
A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself 'Mogor dell'Amore', the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara K÷z, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbek warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier ... continue
23.
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye EN
Description:
A tale of the love of an English officer for an Indian princess set against the splendour of Imperial India at the end of the nineteenth century.
24.
The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal EN
Description:
Set in the sensual richness of India, Shobhan Bantwal's gripping new novel asks: Where can a woman turn when her life's greatest blessing is seen as a curse? It's a girl! For most young couples, news of their unborn child's gender brings joyful anticipation. Not so for Isha Tilak and her husband, Nikhil. They already have a beloved daughter, but Nikhil's parents, hard-wired to favor male children above all, coldly reject little Priya at every turn. Vain and selfish, they see female grandchildren as burdens, and would just as soon never meet the one growing in Isha's belly. Even the obstetricia... continue
25.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy EN
Description:
Still, to say that it all began when Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem is only one way of looking at it . . . It could be argued that it actually began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists came. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendancy, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorin’s conquest of Calicut. Before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a teabag. That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.
26.
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni EN
Description:
The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half-history, half-myth, and wholly magical; narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava brothers, we are -- finally -- given a woman's take on the timeless tale that is the Mahabharata Tracing Panchaali's life -- from fiery birth and lonely childhood, where her beloved brother is her only true companion; through her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna; to marriage, motherhood and Panchaali's secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy -- The Palace of Illusions is a deeply human... continue
27.
The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani EN
Description:
Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family's past.
28.
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan EN
Description:
'The narrative alternates between seductive languor and racy action which capture the opulence and drama of the Mughal kings. Sundaresan delightfully combines history and juicy gossip' - India Today Mehrunnisa - the Sun of Women - one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses ... a woman who overcame insurmountable obstacles through sheer brilliance and determination ... whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire. She is the twentieth wife. The daughter of refugees from Persia, growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar's opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa first encounters P... continue
30.
Description:
An American missionary encounters disease, revolution, intrigue, and a renegade slave trader in a faraway land in this classic historical adventure. When Boston bluestocking Hero Athena Hollis travels to Zanzibar to visit her uncle, an American consul, she arrives filled with self-righteousness and bent on good deeds. She believes that slavery is wrong and is determined to do what she can to stop it. But she soon finds that maintaining her ideals is not so easy. Then she meets Rory Frost, a cynical, wicked, shrewd, and good-humored trader in slaves. What is Hero to make of him—and of her feeli... continue