This sequel to Sea of Poppies – and the second volume in Ghosh's planned Ibis trilogy centred on the 19th-century opium trade – moves on to Canton, China, where opium from the poppy crop is sold. The Chinese authorities are trying to prevent illegal imports of the drug, which has many of the population addicted. Tessa Hadley, reviewing it for the Guardian, said: "Every element, no matter how small, in the novel's world opens up to reveal the further worlds stacked up behind it."
Read the full review here
Photograph: John Murray/Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton
When Chihiro's mother dies, she moves to Tokyo to become a graphic designer. She gets into the habit of staring out of her window and notices a young man, Nakajima, doing exactly the same. A hesitant romance unfolds, as does the mystery behind Nakajima's childhood trauma. In a reader review for Guardian books, Lakis described it as "a book that can be read like a ballad".
Read Lakis's review here
Photograph: Melville House
Kaberi is a young woman stuck in an an uncertain marriage. With difficult parents, an unborn child and an unfaithful husband, Kaberi must look after herself. Moving between Bangalore and Guwahati, the novel weaves together Kaberi’s inner and outer worlds.
Photograph: Penguin India/Penguin Books
The first novel from 78-year-old former civil servant Ahmad follows a child who appears in different guises in each chapter. A third of the way through the book he is given a name: Tor Baz or Black Falcon. Kamila Shamsie, reviewing it in Guardian Review, wrote: "Part of the immersive power of the book comes from Ahmad's ability to combine a clear affection and respect for this world of tribal discipline"
Read the whole review here
Photograph: Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton
The population of Ding Village is being decimated by "the spreading fever" (or Aids) after a village elder persuaded them to abandon their farming for blood-selling. The story focuses on three generations of one family, all with their own complicity in the unfolding tragedy. Reviewing it in the Guardian, Yiyun Li wrote: "Anyone who is remotely familiar with recent Chinese history will see an allegory of the country in the novel."
Read the full review here
Photograph: Grove Atlantic
In this fictional travelogue, a young Indian cricket reporter leaves his job and goes to Guyana in search of "magic". He finds himself overwhelmed by the landscape and by the many people he meets, and records it all in meticulous and loving detail. Reviewing it in the Guardian, David Dabydeen wrote: "Bhattacharya's writing bursts with as much passion as the tropical downpours he describes."
Read the full review here
Photograph: Pan Macmillan/Pan Macmillan India/Picador
When a mother goes missing at a crowded train station her family sets out to search for her. As the mystery of her disappearance unravels, so does the back story of her life, in a novel that is narrated from four perspectives: thos of the mother, her husband, her daughter and her oldest son.
Photograph: Alfred A. Knopf
