Amitav Ghosh – Flood of Fire

The opium war story continues to be deftly shaped by a master storyteller. It provides a terrific insight into a time and place in Indian history.

Atul Gawande – Being Mortal

The story of growing old is deeply felt, and touchingly told, and asks the essential question of doctors: what do you do when the treatment hurts, rather than helps, an aging patient?

Sunjeev Sahota – The Year of the Runaways

Shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker. A sprawling story of 13 young men escaping from an Indian past and looking for a new life in England.

Mindy Kaling – Why Not Me?

A hilarious, tongue-in-cheek look at beauty, weight, relationships and other angst matters

Anuradha Roy – Sleeping on Jupiter

Longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker. A dark story about the sticky threads of religion, love and loss

A Greek presidential guard stands as he seen through the remains of a European Union flag half-burnt by protesters in Athens, on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. About 8,000 people took part in subdued demonstrations in Athens as austerity-weary unions held a strike for May Day. The country’s main labor unions protested soaring unemployment, which is the highest in the 27-country European Union, and the austerity measures the conservative-led government is enacting in return for crucial bailout loans. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Sujata Massey – The Kizuna Coast

A Rei Shimura mystery (#11)

Set in Japan, amateur sleuth Rei sets out to investigate the suspicious disappeareance of a young woman

Salman Rushdie – Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

Narrated by people born 1,000 years hence, looking back on a battle waged over 1,001 nights by a motley of real and mythical characters engaged in saving the world

Jay Antani – The Leaving of Things

A young Indian American teenager comes to terms with who and where he belongs when he is forced to live in India

Raj Kamal Jha – She Will Build Him a City

A beguiling tale about the intersecting lives of a man, woman and child in a city rife with violence and humanity

Sejal Hadani – Trail of Broken Wings

Buried secrets are exposed and humiliations and retaliations are aired as three sisters unite at their father’s coma bed

Pans

Akhil Sharma – Family Life

A deeply personal tragic story told in a dispassionate, almost clinical manner. It seemed as though the author could not connect with his culture or his emotions.

Kunal Nayyar – Yes, My Accent is Real

Kunal Nayyar’s personal story failed to be a compelling one. The narrative lacked depth and comic timing.

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