by Devyani Saltzman

In 1999, while visiting the set of her mother's latest film, Water, in Benares, India, Saltzman realized that despite their differences, both she and her mother shared a passion for storytelling...
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by M.G. Vassanji

The story begins in the South Asian community in 1950's Kenya, to which Vikram belongs, and which is politically and socially sandwiched between intimidation by the British colonizers and fear of the Mau Mau guerillas.
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by Gautam Malkani

Malkani has succeeded brilliantly with his first attempt, not because he's mimicked an urban subculture, but because he has put his finger directly on the pulse of a generation.
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by Shaun Mehta

12 short stories and 6 themes encompassing a plethora of emotions that cut across all strata's of society-East and West. Once again, Mehta has displayed an uncanny ability of delving into (presumably) unfamiliar territory.
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by Amulya Malladi

With its sunset coloured skin and sweet flesh, the mango is at its prime between the months of June and August. Amulya Malladi’s second novel, The Mango Season...
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by Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh’s latest novel will open the readers’ eyes to the different vistas offered by the Indian landscape.
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by Shyam Selvadurai

Story-Wallah! is an anthology of the works by 26 South Asian diasporic writers, spanning the continents where South Asians have established their roots.
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by Suketu Mehta

Call it Bombay or Mumbai, the city has been attracting tourists for centuries. Back in the day,
the phoren people came by the boat load to buy spices, cotton and an assortment of exotica to stock their houses. Today desis come by the plane load to stock up on the latest Ritu Kumar designs for their cousins' or siblings' marriage...
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by Shree Ghatage

It's been 57 years since the Union Jack was replaced by the Indian tricolour flag. A thin layer of dust has already coated the memories of August 15, 1947 for some South Asian Canadians. Jawaharlal Nehru's crackling voice, delivering that famous "tryst with destiny" speech, is probably on its last spool for others...
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by Shaun Mehta

What would you do if you spent three years toiling away on a labour of love, only to have it rejected because you didn't have the 'experience' deemed necessary for storytelling? If you're Shaun Mehta, you'd ignore these dismissals and print it anyway, independently. Toronto-based Mehta, is an ingenue...
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edited by the Marsala Trois Collective

It’s a daringly delirious plunge into forbidden territory! Desilicious traces a carnal journey and denotes everything that is ‘sexy’, ‘subversive’ and ‘South Asian’, just like its editors proclaim. Spanning a total of 38 writers from Canada, US, UK and India, the collective is one of its’ kind exploring taboo topics...
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by Amita Handa

Silk Saris is bold and gutsy book. It exposes the duality that most south-asian girls in North America live with. It documents what it is like for south-asian girls in Canada to 'constantly live in a generational space in which there is constant switching, lying and hiding of truths...
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Interview with Tanuja

The themes in BORN CONFUSED are issues I'd been thinking about whether consciously or not for a few years beforehand-or maybe even all my life, depending on where you draw the line. One big inspiration was my own discovery of the desi 'scene' in New York City-it was a confusing, stimulating, and thrilling... more »

by Tanuja Desai Hidier

Even though the title breathes the chic terminology which raged in campuses across North America in various forms, celebrating the specimen of sorts, the widely known 'confused desi'! The book traces the dilemmas of a cute American born Indian teenager Dimple Lala...
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by V.S. Naipaul

Half a Life details the first four decades of the life of William Somerset Chandran. We are told about his father who, besotted by the preaching of Mahatma Gandhi, is determined make his sacrifices for his Motherland. This, he does by "marrying the lowest person he could find"...
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by Rohinton Mistry

If there is one thing that manifests itself in every book written by Mistry, it is his love for Bombay. The city is always the canvas, the background on which Mistry paints his richly detailed portraits of the people of Bombay and their stories...
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by Meera Syal

Meera Syal has done it again. Fans of the British TV show, Goodness Gracious Me, and the movie, Bhaji on the Beach, will recognize Syal's powerful and on the mark humour in her second novel, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee...
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by Talat Abbasi

Talat Abbasi's voice provides a fresh perspective in this collection of short stories. It doesn't reflect the usual milieu that one has come to expect from contemporary Pakistani writing, especially that pertaining to the diaspora...
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by Manil Suri

I am still confused. Since I am unsure of what Manil Suri had in mind when he decided to use Indian mythology as a main theme in his debut novel, I can't quite understand what larger purpose it serves in it...
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Edited by the Kitchen Table Collective

Bolo! Bolo! is an anthology that professes to be a "collection of writings by second generation South Asians living in North America". It covers a myriad of genres ranging from poetry, short fiction, short essays, long thoughts...
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by Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie's second novel, Salt and Saffron, has affirmed her a place in the canon that is somewhat loosely called 'diasporic literature'. It has also strongly asserted a place for literature written by young Pakistani writers...
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Coordinated by Shakil Choudhury

The Brown Book was created with two main goals. The first is to combat racism through storytelling, and enhance our image of South Asian people and countries. And second, to provide role models who challenge stereotypes and inspire youth... .
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by Amitav Ghosh

The novel opens introducing us to one of the main characters, Rajkumar Raha. We see the world through the eyes of the precocious eleven-year-old boy who is left to fend for himself as he watches the disintegration of his family...
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by Raywat Deonandan

Short stories by a remarkable new voice, this work represents the younger voice of Caribbean writing in Canada and elsewhere. These stories, set in India, the Caribbean and North America, profile immigration and detached belonging...
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by Michael Ondaatje

Can a book be so beautiful and so sad? Michael Ondaatje seems to effortlessly fuse the two together in his latest book, Anil's Ghost, with the same deceptive ease that he blurs the boundaries between poetry and prose...
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by Anita Rau Badami

Badami's latest work, The Hero's Walk is a colourful and heart warming novel about a man who must become guardian to the daughter of his estranged sister...
Read Aparita's Review » Read an interview»

by Jhumpa Lahiri
Winner of the Pulitizer Prize

Traveling from India to New England and back again, these short stories chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, they also speak with universal eloquence to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner... Read Neil's Review

By Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family of distinction. Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of that same family. Bonded in ways even their mothers cannot comprehend, the two girls grow into womanhood as if their fates, as well as their hearts, are merged.When Sudha learns a dark family secret... Read Neil's Review

By Salman Rushdie

At the beginning, Vina Apsara, a famous and much-loved singer, is caught up in a devastating earthquake and never seen again by human eyes. This is her story, and that of Ormus Cama, the lover who finds, loses, seeks and again finds her, over and over, throughout his own extraordinary life in music: the story of a love... READ AN EXCERPT

By Vikram Chandra

Gather 'round, its storytime·.Readers and characters alike are mesmerized by 5 short tales told by an elusive civil servant in a smoky Bombay bar. Each story has a simple but powerful name, representing key human desires and responsibilities: Dharma (Duty), Shakti (Power), Kama (Love), Artha (Wealth) and Shanti (Peace). The stories range in genre from love stories to ghost stories to murder mysteries. Spun together, we learn that an excess of any human desire can never bring peace.

By Shauna Singh Baldwin

Against the backdrop of the bloody partition is this powerful story of two women, Roop and Satya, who are forced to share both a household and a husband. The women's complex relationship is developed throughout the novel, juxtaposed against a complex political struggle. Baldwin powerfully attests to the suffering of women, Sikhs and Indians alike during these tumultuous times.

By Ardashir Vakil

Cyrus is the eight-year-old son of a successful shipping broker and a beautiful former tennis star. Set in the 1970's, Cyrus orders the reader about, taking him/her along on his boyhood adventures. But innocence is lost as Cyrus' silly pranks are replaced by sexual discovery, family distress and the experience of death. A wonderful journey from childhood to adulthood set upon the landscape of life in modern India.