The Bookshelf in 2017

From novel by Arundhati Roy to Nanavati case, 2017 offers a range of eclectic reading

From new novels by Arundhati Roy and Jeet Thayil to a translation of an 1857 eyewitness memoir, from the Nanavati case and a definitive investigation of Osama bin Laden to a fabulous history of spices, 2017 offers a range of eclectic reading. Nilanjana S Roy picks the best of the lot: 

The Exile 
 

ADRIAN LEVY AND CATHERINE SCOTT-CLARK
 

Bloomsbury

From the authors of The Meadow and The Siege, this promises to be another unforgettable work of investigative journalism, as they follow Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the years after 9/11. Neither Levy nor Scott-Clark ever lose sight of the human element, as they take the reader inside that house in Abbottabad, into the workings of torture chambers and terror organisations.

 

The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II
 

SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH, TRANSLATED  BY RICHARD PEVEAR AND LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY
 

Penguin RandomHouse

“Flaubert called himself a human pen; I would say that I am a human ear.” In the 1980s, Alexievich began interviewing women who had survived war in Russia and found that “disappearance was what they talked about most, how quickly everything can turn into nothing”. Over time, she expanded her research to take in extraordinary oral histories of women who’d fought in, suffered in and been marked by war. In her hands, the history of World War II changes sharply, as the invisible figures of the millions of women take centrestage for once.

Men Without Women
 

HARUKI MURAKAMI
 

Penguin RandomHouse

A cat walks into a bar; Scheherazade, so unremarkable you would pass her by on the street, continues to tell stories; a boy puts new lyrics to an old Beatles number in Kansai dialect. This collection of Murakami stories, a few familiar to New Yorker readers, won’t disappoint his fans. The title is intriguing — Hemingway used it for a collection of his own stories, but Murakami places his stamp on it with these sketches of loneliness and men trying, unsuccessfully, to outrun their own feelings.

Exit West
 

MOHSIN HAMID
 

Penguin RandomHouse

“I wanted this to be a novel about refugees that reminded us we’re all refugees,” Mohsin Hamid said to John Freeman in an interview. The unnamed country in his novel might well be Pakistan, but it could be shorthand for any nation that has been overrun by violence, the politics of fear, and a climate of repression. His protagonists, Nadia and Saeed, become refugees, first in Greece, then in London and San Francisco, stuck between a world suspicious of migrants, freedom offered with thorns attached, and wanting escape from “being stifled” in the place of your birth for your entire life.

The Golden Legend 
 

NADEEM ASLAM
 

Faber & Faber

In his fifth novel, Nadeem Aslam writes directly into the heart of contemporary Pakistan. Nargis, a successful architect, lives with her husband next door to Christian neighbours in the city of Zamana. Her husband is killed in a public shootout; the mystery of who might be behind inflammatory broadcasts from the city’s mosques deepens; and for the survivors, all of their lives are ringed by risk and danger. Aslam scores by keeping the focus on individuals in a time of extreme political chaos, in this ambitious, uneven but beautiful novel.

Hit Refresh 
 

SATYA NADELLA
 

HarperCollins
 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s memoir is split into three parts, according to news stories, blending his personal journey from Hyderabad to the US, with an account of Microsoft’s responses to the many challenges the company has faced. The third part of the book deals with the swift changes in the world of artificial intelligence, and Nadella’s thoughts on technology, future trends and future shock.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness 
 

ARUNDHATI ROY
 

HamishHamilton

“In the country that she came from, poised forever between the terror of war and the horror of peace, Worse Things kept happening.” In the twenty years after Arundhati Roy wrote The God of Small Things (GOST) , she’s published essays, despatches and other non-fiction. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, her second novel, is said to take in Delhi as well as Kashmir, and is said to be as strongly heartwrenching and politically astute as the Booker-winning GOST — worth the wait.

The Book of Chocolate Saints
 

JEET THAYIL
 

Aleph
 

From the author of Narcopolis, which was shortlisted for the Booker, comes a second, shapeshifting novel. The Book of Chocolate Saints mixes in original poems and tactical digressions as it tells the story of Francis Newton Xavier, painter, somewhat reformed alcoholic, his companions, old friends and antagonists. “If you want to make something genuine in this climate you have to think about indolence and brutality,” Xavier had said in Narcopolis. Now he’s wandered out of its pages, and has a novel all to himself.

The Nanavati Case
 

BACHI KARKARIA
 

Juggernaut
 

In 1959, Commander K M Nanavati dropped his wife, Sylvia, and their children to Metro cinema. He went from the cinema to the home of Prem Ahuja, his wife’s lover, and after a brief conversation, shot his former friend dead. Nanavati was convicted for murder, but won the public’s sympathy during the trial, which was also the last jury trial in India. Karkaria investigates what became of Commander Nanavati, explores the Bombay of that age, and asks why the Nanavati case still exerts such fascination on the popular imagination.

The Flavour of Spice: Journeys, Stories, Recipes
 

MARRYAM RESHII
 

Hachette 

In 25 years of writing and cooking, Marryam Reshii’s passion for food and everything to do with the kitchen has sent her on the trail of Indian chefs, home cooks and new and old spice and vegetable markets. The Flavour of Spice promises to be a fabulous and definitive history of spices, shifting from saffron plantations in Iran to explorations of black cardamom in Sikkim, told by one of the country’s most inquiring and open-minded food writers.

A Memorial
 

HANSDA SOWVENDRA SHEKHAR
 

Speaking Tiger
 

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s first collection of short stories, The Adivasi Will Not Dance, drew from his experiences working as a doctor in Jharkhand. His second book and first novel, A Memorial, explores the relationship between a Santhal father and son split by their personal and political differences, and promises to be one of the most interesting works of Indian fiction in 2017.

Dastan-e-Ghadar – The Tale of the Mutiny
 

ZAHIR DEHLVI, TRANSLATED BY RANA SAFVI
 

Penguin RandomHouse

Zahir Dehlvi was a promising poet at the time of the war of 1857, and spent the years afterwards in temporary exile from the city, seeking employment in Sonepat and Bareilly, among other places. This translation brings his memoir of living through both the last days of the Mughal court and the slaughter and violence that accompanied the siege. “All the wells of Kucha Chelan are filled with bodies,” he wrote of the massacre of some of the city’s most prominent writers and ordinary citizens, “My pen dare not write any more.” This is a timely translation, commemorating the 160th anniversary of the first major uprising against the British in India.