The 12 best Indian fiction titles of 2018

From marvellous debuts to surprisingly original stories, 2018 saw a host of stunning Indian books that charmed us all. They made us laugh, they made us cry -- and most importantly, they made us think. These books, most of them not even a year old, are what the literati is talking about. From heart-breaking narratives to thrilling adventures, rebel girls to migrating souls -- these books presented us with a profound truth that lingered way too long after they ended. We are here with this year's greatest Indian reads, and if you're a true bibliophile, aim to read most of them before the year ends, and make way for a splendid literary 2019!

Amitabha Bagchi’s masterpiece is a marvellous tale of the bonds between past and present, as Bagchi details a chaotic conflict that besets three generations of two families. Called by several critics as an ambitious tale, the story follows renowned Hindi novelist Vishwanath who decides to pen a book set in Lala Motichand's household. He writes about the turbulent life of the wealthy Lala and his three unique sons, as well as himself, who is the son of a cook for a rich seth. As everyone awaits the Lala's death, Vishwanath reveals the wreckage of his own life along with the meaning of loyalty, love and family in the household. Amitabha Bagchi's stunning prose and unusual story underscores religion, literature and society and how they shape our fractured times.

Image: Juggernaut

Deemed as one of the greatest debuts of the decade, Shubhangi Swarup's 'Latitudes of Longing' was also shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature in 2018. The story is a detailed tale of ecological and geological exploration and imagination. Called "intense, lyrical, and powerful" by Jeet Thayil, Swarup's book follows a scientist who studies trees, and his profound and extraordinary adventure through the many waves of life.

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Tanaz Bhatena's critically-acclaimed novel follows the smart 16 year-old orphan girl Zarin Wadia in Saudi Arabia. A free-spirited girl with an abusive aunt, Zarin is someone who is always determined to fight back. Methodically othered even at school, Zarin retorts by smoking and sneaking out with boys. As she finds a friend and becomes emotionally attached, the story takes a gruesome turn and becomes a heart-breaking narrative of a girl who was never given her own space. Eye-opening and emotional, 'A Girl Like That' exposes sexist double standards in our society and how it controls and punishes women with their own voice.

Image: Penguin Random House India

Shobha Rao's brilliant and touching debut follows Poornima and Savitha, two destitute girls who strike up a strong friendship and are inseparable until Savitha suffers a traumatic rape and runs away. The book shows the reality of rural India, of small minds, suffocating expectations and how a woman's worth is measured. Enticingly written, Shobha Rao's writing draws one into the narrative like magic.

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Translated from the Malayalam, this is the story of a young Radio Jockey Sameera Parvin who immigrates to an unnamed city in the Middle East from Pakistan where she tells the story of the Arab Spring of 2011. Her seemingly shiny world starts to fall apart with the revolution and people's agitation due to which she is forced to choose between life and death. ‘Jasmine Days’ was first published in Malayalam in 2014 as ‘Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal’.

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Originally written in Tamil, 'Poonachi' is a funny and warm tale of a black orphan goat who lives a life tethered a rope. The story follows her from forest to habitation, independence to motherhood and traces the trajectory of Poonachi's fight for survival. A clever depiction of our own responses to hierarchy and ownership, selflessness and appetite, love and desire, living and dying, 'Poonachi' highlights the profound truths of our unequal world.

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Jeet Thayil's second novel is a hypnotic story of literature, coloured individuals and their fragmented dreams. The story follows poet and artist Newton Francis Xavier, serial seducer and recovering alcoholic, who decides to come back to New Delhi from New York and undergoes an unforgettable and profound whirlwind of love, sex, art and God. Incorporated with magical insights into the world of Indian literature of the seventies and eighties, 'The Book of Chocolate Saints' is narrated with a sophisticated variation that the magnitude of the work demands.

Image: Aleph Book Company

A follow-up of 2017's 'A Murder of Malabar Hill', 'The Widows of Malabar Hill' is set in the 1920s and follows Perveen Mistry, Bombay's only female lawyer, Oxford-educated, and a champion of women's legal rights. In this book, Perveen has been appointed to investigate the suspicious will of Omar Farid, a mill owner who has left three Muslim widows behind. As tensions escalate to a murder, Perveen goes full-on Agatha Christie to figure out what really transpired as she also wants no innocent women or children harmed any further.

Image: Penguin Random House India

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Neel Mukherjee's latest book offers an enchanting tale of a chaotic society in grappling to understand change. Mukherjee follows five main characters as they migrate across the country and their narratives weave together in beautiful prose. A haunting tale of the unquenchable thirst for a life that is different, 'A State of Freedom' is both liberating and binding, laced with a myriad of rhetoric from the Indian subcontinent -- from class to caste, culture to characters.

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Dark and disturbing in parts, 'Eating Wasps' explores the inner workings of the minds of women and illustrates how the world often shoves them to insanity for expressing their desires. The book follows the unlikely suicide of award-winning author Sreelakshmi. Set in Kerala, Nair’s story highlights women with different personalities. There is Urvashi, whose drive to find desire outside of marriage gets her a stalker. Then there is Megha, a victim of child sexual abuse; Najma, the acid attack survivor, and so on. Nair's brilliance lies in the fact that she doesn't merely portray these women as victims. They are flawed human beings with flesh and bones -- and survivors. An evocative and raw story coupled with Nair's impeccable prose make for an intensely intriguing read.

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The brainchild of four experts in the field of graphic narratives -- Sarbajit Sen, Debkumar Mitra, Pinaki De and Sekhar Mukherjee – ‘Longform Volume 1’ is a unique collection of stories featuring 30 graphic artists from various places, with their own distinctive narrative techniques. The stories range from quirky to trendy. Whether it's South Korean artist Heeseon Kim’s “The River”, Promit Basu’s “Fairness Cream”, or Nikhil Chaudhary's "Saline Intrusions", every story reflects the contemporary reality and presents the truth in a direct, uncomplicated narrative. Each story illustrates a different idea and merges with the ecology that the artist creates in the story.

Image: HarperCollins India

Appupen's latest graphic novel 'The Snake and the Lotus' is set in the Halahala world of his previous comics. This dystopian novel shows the ugliness of our society with its version of where we are heading. This is a story about a woman who is bought into one of the few liveable places in the world, a society of humans run by machines which are destroying the planet. As she makes her way through the segregation of society, we find how everyone is enslaved by the machines through some form of addiction. With a robust tale and evocative graphics, Appupen creates a brutal and rich narrative of the subversive world we live in.

Image: Westland