by Janika Oza (2023)
A History of Burning is Janika Oza's sweeping, multi-generational debut novel spanning four continents and five generations. Beginning with Pirbhai, an Indian boy forced into indentured labor building the East African railway in 1898, the novel traces a family through Ugandan expulsion and resettlement across England and Canada, testifying to the enduring flames of family solidarity.
Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake is Jhumpa Lahiri's poignant debut novel expanding upon the themes of her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. It follows the Ganguli family, who leave Calcutta for Cambridge, Massachusetts, focusing on their son Gogol Ganguli as he navigates the tangled burdens of heritage, cultural displacement, identity, and his awkward, inherited name.
Thrity Umrigar
The Space Between Us is Thrity Umrigar's deeply moving and unflinching novel set in modern Bombay. It explores the intimate yet fraught relationship between Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi widow, and Bhima, her devoted elderly domestic servant, probing the class divisions, personal sacrifices, and shared grief that define Indian society.
Vivek Shanbhag
Ghachar Ghochar is a celebrated psychological novella by Vivek Shanbhag, masterfully translated into English by Srinath Perur. Set in Bangalore, it chronicles a lower-middle-class family transformed by sudden wealth from a spice business, illuminating how money inexorably shifts loyalties, power dynamics, and moral boundaries.
Angie Cruz
A rich family saga tracking the dreams and sacrifices of the Colon family, from political upheaval in Santo Domingo during the 1960s to immigrant survival on 164th Street in Washington Heights.