This year, India Currents’ ‘Books’ section has featured heavyweights of the South Asian literary landscape like Booker Winners Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Banu Mushtaq, and historian William Dalrymple alongside immigrant and debut novelists like Megha Majumdar, Parul Kapur, and Rajesh C. Oza. Collectively, their works held up a mirror to struggles, social as well as personal, flares of resilience and heroism, and a sense of shared humanity. Here’s a recap of my top five book stories of the year. 

Mother Mary Comes To Me

A book cover entitled Mother Mary Comes To Me
Arundhati Roy’s new memoir about her mother Mary is a searing account of life with and without her mother.  

Arundhati Roy’s Memoir Reveals The Price of Being Mother Mary’s Daughter: Reviewed by Anjana Nagarajan Butaney, Roy’s memoir is an uncompromising reckoning with the legacy of Roy’s formidable mother, prominent Indian educator and activist, Mary Roy. In its pages are revealed a complicated mother-daughter bond, and how hurt, angst, and personal rebellion laid the foundation for social-political dissent.

The Golden Road

A man and a woman in conversation in front of a stained glass window
Author & historian William Dalrymple in conversation with Meera Kymal of India Currents, The Explorers Club, May 9, 2025 (image courtesy: mkymal)

William Dalrymple On ‘The Golden Road’: How Ancient India Shaped The World 

In this interview with India Currents’ editor, Meera Kymal, Dalrymple speaks about India as the fountainhead of ideas – intellectual, economic, scientific and spiritual – and its influence in the ancient world. Fascinating facts you can read about include the origin of mathematics, the first discovery of gold in India, and the maritime superpower that ancient India was. 

Heart Lamp

A book and two women.
Author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhashti, winners of the International Booker Prize 2025; Heart Lamp: Selected Stories book cover.

Heart Lamp: A Review Of Banu Mushtaq’s Booker-Winning Short Stories. This International Booker Prize winning collection of short stories, written by Mustaq and illustrated by Deepa Bhasti, illuminates the inner lives of Muslim women in South India. Mushtaq uses sharp, witty prose to speak for the voiceless, addressing themes of patriarchy, gender, and class conflicts within the grassroots of the Muslim community in Karnataka. 

A Guardian and a Thief

Combined image of a book cover and a woman.
Megha Majumdar, author of ‘A Guardian And A Thief’. Photo: © Elena Seibert.

A Guardian And A Thief: In The Guardian and a Thief, New York based author Megha Majumdar is interviewed by Ashwini Gangal. Majumdar talks about her own immigrant experiences, a sense of joy and meaning in having built a life in the US, alongwith the sorrow of leaving ones homeland. 

Inside the Mirror

A woman with a book cover.
Debut Author Parul Kapur with her book, Inside the Mirror. Photo composite by IC Staff.

Inside the Mirror – A Review: A poignant debut novel set in 1950s Bombay, Parul Kapur’s Inside the Mirror, reviewed by Monita Soni, follows twin sisters Jaya and Kamlesh Malhotra as they navigate post-independence Bombay, the traumas of Partition, and the expectations of their Punjabi Khatri refugee family to claim their own artistic identities.

Nandita Chowdhury Bose is Contributing Editor at India Currents. In Mumbai, she worked at India Today and Society magazines, besides other digital publications. In the United States, she has been a communications...