Sita: Warrior Of Mithila by Amish Tripathi (Westland)
India, 3400 BCE.
An abandoned baby is found in a field. Protected by a vulture from a pack of murderous wolves.
She is adopted by the ruler of Mithila, a powerless kingdom, ignored by all.
Nobody believes this child will amount to much. But they are wrong. For she is no ordinary girl. She is Sita.
This thrilling adventure takes you back, before the beginning. It chronicles the rise of an adopted child, who became the prime minister. And then, a Goddess.
Origin by Dan Brown (Penguin Random House India)
Robert Langdon arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that 'will change the face of science forever'. But the evening is blown apart before Edmond Kirsch's precious discovery can be revealed.
Langdon and the museum's director, Ambra Vidal, flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.
On a trail marked by enigmatic symbols and elusive modern art, they come face-to-face with a world-shaking truth that has remained buried -- until now.
Bahubali: The Rise Of Sivagami by Anand Neelkantan (Westland)
Orphaned at a young age and wrenched away from her foster family, Sivagami is waiting for the day she can avenge the death of her beloved father, cruelly branded a traitor. Her enemy? None other than the king of Mahishmathi.
A tale of intrigue and power, revenge and betrayal, the revelations in The Rise Of Sivagami will grip the reader and not let go.
The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Penguin Random House India)
At once an aching love story and a decisive remonstration, it is told in a whisper, in a shout, through tears and sometimes with a laugh. Its heroes are people who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, mended by love – and by hope. For this reason, they are as steely as they are fragile, and they never surrender.
This ravishing, magnificent book reinvents what a novel can do and can be. And it demonstrates on every page the miracle of Arundhati Roy's storytelling gifts.
In The Name Of God by Ravi Subramanian (Penguin Random House India)
The Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple safeguards within its sacrosanct walls centuries of customs, rituals and unimaginable wealth. Until a dead body turns up in its holy pond... And then another. When fingers point to its custodian, the titular king of Travancore, all hell breaks loose.
Meanwhile, a high-profile heist in a jewellery store at Dubai's Wafi Mall leads investigators to a massive smuggling racket and brings the CBI's Kabir Khan into the heart of south India.
In Mumbai, a series of high-intensity explosions threatens to dismantle the country's most coveted diamond trade. Could these incidents be related?
Murder On The Orient Express (Film tie-in edition) by Agatha Christie (Harper Collins India)
Agatha Christie's most famous murder mystery, re-issued with a new cover to tie in with the film adaptation.
Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.
Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer -- in case he or she decides to strike again.
The Boy Who Loved by Durjoy Datta (Penguin Random House India)
Raghu likes to show that there is nothing remarkable about his life. Deep down, however, the guilt of letting his closest friend drown in the school's swimming pool gnaws at him.
And even as he punishes himself by hiding from the world and shying away from love and friendship, he feels drawn to the fascinating Brahmi -- a girl quite like him, yet so different.
No matter how hard Raghu tries, he begins to care . . . Then life throws him into the deep end and he has to face his worst fears.
Baaz by Anuja Chauhan (HarperCollins Publishers India)
1971. The handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed 'Sabre Slayer' for the devastation it has wreaked in the ranks of Pakistan's F-86 Sabre Squadrons.
Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou, and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure -- until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism...
Pulsating with love, laughter and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan's tribute to our men in uniform.
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie (Penguin Random House India)
On the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from Bombay takes up residence in a cloistered community in New York's Greenwich Village. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent and unmistakable air of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya; Apu, the flamboyant artist; and D, who harbours an explosive secret even from himself.
Copiously detailed, sumptuously inventive, brimming with all the razzle-dazzle that imbues his fiction with the lush ambience of a fable, The Golden House is about where we were before 26/11, where we are today and how we got here. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention.
Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer (Pan Macmillan India)
Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Archer returns with his eagerly-awaited, brand-new collection. Tell Tale gives us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people Jeffrey Archer has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past 10 years.
These wonderfully engaging and always refreshingly original tales prove why Archer was described by The Times as probably the greatest storyteller of our age.
An Unsuitable Boy by Karan Johar (Penguin Random House India)
Baring all for the first time in his autobiography, KJo reminisces about his childhood, the influence of his Sindhi mother and Punjabi father, his obsession with Bollywood and much more. In his trademark frank style, he talks about the ever-changing face of Indian cinema as well as friendships and rivalries in the industry.
Honest, heart-warming and insightful, An Unsuitable Boy is both the story of the life of an exceptional film-maker at the peak of his powers and of an equally extraordinary human being who shows you how to survive and succeed in life.
I Do What I Do by Raghuram Rajan (HarperCollins India)
When Raghuram G Rajan took charge as governor of the Reserve Bank of India in September 2013, the rupee was in free fall, inflation was high, India had a large current account deficit and India's exchange reserves were falling.
I Do What I Do conveys what it was like to be at the helm of the central bank in those turbulent but exciting times. It also brings home what every RBI governor discovers for himself when he sits down at his desk on the 18th floor: the rupee stops here. Right here!
Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored by Rishi Kapoor with Meena Iyer (HarperCollins India)
This is as up close and personal a biography as any fan could have hoped for.
Rishi Kapoor writes about growing up in the shadow of a legendary father, skipping school to act in Mera Naam Joker, the workings of the musical hits of the era, an encounter with Dawood Ibrahim, his heroines (their working relationship, the gossip and the frisson that was sometimes real), his approach to his craft, his tryst with clinical depression, and more.
A foreword by Ranbir Kapoor and a stirring afterword by Neetu Singh bookend the warmest, most dil se biography an Indian star has ever penned.
Adiyogi: The Source Of Yoga by Sadhguru (HarperCollins India)
A book like no other, this is a tribute to Shiva, the Adiyogi, by a living yogi; a chronicle of the progenitor of mysticism by a contemporary mystic.
Here, science and philosophy merge seamlessly, so do silence and sound, question and answer-to capture the unspeakable enigma of Adiyogi in a spellbinding wave of words and ideas that will leave one entranced, transformed.
Three Thousand Stitches by Sudha Murty (Penguin Random House India)
So often, it's the simplest acts of courage that touch the lives of others. Sudha Murty, hrough the exceptional work of the Infosys Foundation as well as through her own youth, family life and travelsm encounters many such stories... And she tells them here in her characteristically clear-eyed, warm-hearted way.
Unmasking both the beauty and ugliness of human nature, each of the real-life stories in this collection is reflective of a life lived with grace.
Little Black Book For Stunning Success: Tools For Action Mastery by Robin Sharma (Jaico)
Uncommon success is no longer just for the chosen few. In The Little Black Book For Stunning Success, Robin Sharma shares the potent insights that have helped so many people just like you do legendary work, live remarkable lives and lift everyone around them in the process.
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience And Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg (Penguin Random House India)
Everyone experiences some form of Option B. We all deal with loss: jobs lost, loves lost, lives lost. The question is not whether these things will happen but how we face them when they do.
Thoughtful, honest, revealing and warm, Option B weaves Sheryl Sandberg's experiences coping with adversity with stories of people who recovered from personal and professional hardship, including illness, injury, divorce, job loss, sexual assault and imprisonment. These people did more than recover -- many of them became stronger.
Option B offers compelling insights for dealing with hardships in our own lives and helping others in crisis.
The Target: The Decimation Of Jignesh Shah's Global Empire. How He Broke The Market Monopoly And The Price He Paid by Shantanu Guha Ray (Self-published)
If things had gone Jignesh Shah's way, he would have been the Czar of Exchanges, a sterling exponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' programme.
Shah pioneered creation of 10 new-generation regulated multi-asset (equity, commodity, currency, bond & electricity) financial markets just in 10 years across India, Singapore, Dubai and Africa.
But he had taken on institutional forces like the National Stock Exchange and invisible forces backing it.
Seasoned journalist Shantanu Guha Ray probes the motives of those who shunted Shah out of Exchange businesses and what it means for the politico-business climate of India.
Leader: Insights From Indian Mythology by Devdutt Pattanaik (HarperCollins India)
What does the Biblical story of Nathan and David say about effective communication skills?
How do you identify the Raja Bhoj, the Gangu Teli and the Shekchilli in your office?
What is the corporate equivalent of an Ashwamedha yajna?
Devdutt Pattanaik, India's leading mythologist, shows what leaders of today can learn about the art of leadership from stories written thousands of years ago, things no management course can teach.
Hit Refresh: The Quest To Rediscover Microsoft's Soul And Imagine A Better Future For Everyone by Satya Nadella (HarperCollins India)
Microsoft's CEO tells the inside story of the company's continuing transformation, while tracing his own journey from a childhood in India to leading some of the most significant changes of the digital era and offering his vision for the coming wave of intelligent technologies.
He shares his meditations as sitting CEO -- one who is mostly unknown following the brainy Bill Gates and energetic Steve Ballmer.
He explains how the company rediscovered its soul -- transforming everything from its culture to its business partnerships to the fiercely competitive landscape of the industry itself.
Nadella concludes by introducing an equation to restore digital trust, ethical design principles and economic growth for everyone.
Murder In Mahim by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger)
A young man is found dead in the toilet of Matunga Road station, his stomach ripped open. Retired journalist Peter D'Souza joins the investigation with his friend, Inspector Zende, and is drawn into a world of secret desire, blackmail and unspoken love -- a world that he fears his son may be a part of.
Driven as much by fear and empathy as by curiosity about men who seek men, Peter tries to track down the killer, with some help from the flamboyant Leslie Siqueira, 'the Queen of the Queen of the Suburbs'. But time is running out.
The Association Of Small Bombs: A Novel by Karan Mahajan (Penguin Random House India)
When Delhi schoolboys Tushar and Nakul Khurana pick up their family's television set from a repair shop with their friend Mansoor Ahmed, disaster strikes without warning. A bomb -- one of the many 'small' ones that go off seemingly unheralded across the world -- detonates in the Delhi marketplace, instantly claiming their lives.
Mansoor survives, bearing the physical and psychological effects of the bomb.
Karan Mahajan writes brilliantly about the effects of terrorism on victims and perpetrators, proving himself to be one of the most provocative and dynamic novelists of his generation.
Savithri's Special Room And Other Stories by Manu Bhattathiri (HarperCollins India)
Named after the black river that flows through it, Karuthupuzha is a sleepy little town in the interiors of south India. But wait till you meet its inhabitants.
A stingy accountant who wants to be a philanthropist, a godman with a strange fetish, the owner of an old age home who trades in pornography, a rationalist brought down to earth by an orphan's curse, and Savithri, a kind-hearted grandmother filling her secret room with delicacies: there's a surprise waiting at the turn of every page.
Things To Leave Behind by Namita Gokhale Mahajan (Penguin Random House India)
A rich, panoramic historical novel shows you Kumaon and the Raj as you have never seen them. It brings alive the romance of the mixed legacy of British-Indian past.
Full of the fascinating backstory of Naineetal and its unwilling entry into Indian history, throwing a shining light on the elemental confusion of caste, creed and culture, illuminated with painstaking detail, here is a fascinating historical epic and Namita Gokhale's most ambitious novel yet.
Harilal And Sons by Sujit Saraf (Speaking Tiger)
Spanning seven decades of an era that saw great tumult in India and Bangladesh, Harilal and Sons is an evocative, powerful and capacious narrative contained within the singular life of one man who 'dealt in jute and grain'.
A sprawling, compulsively readable narrative, it follows the story of Harilal as he sets up Harilal and Sons, a shop selling jute, cotton, spices, rice, cigarettes and soap that grows into a large enterprise.
It is also the sweeping tale of his two wives and ever-burgeoning family -- the two strands of family and business inextricably fused because a Marwari's life is defined by what he 'deals in'.
The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh (Penguin Random House India)
Are we deranged? One of India's greatest writers, Amitav Ghosh, argues that future generations may well think so. How else can we explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming?
In this groundbreaking return to non-fiction, Ghosh examines our inability at the level of literature, history and politics to grasp the scale and violence of climate change.
The climate crisis asks us to imagine other forms of human existence, a task to which fiction, Ghosh argues, is best suited.
The Great Derangement serves as a brilliant writer's summons to confront the most urgent task of our time.
Do read: The Amitav Ghosh interview
Borderlands: Travels across India's Boundaries by Pradeep Damodaran (Hachette India)
India's periphery is dotted with sleepy towns and desolate villages whose people, simply by having more in common with citizens of neighbouring nations than with their own, have to prove their Indian identity every day.
It is these specks on the country's map that Pradeep Damodaran rediscovers as he travels across India's borders for a little more than a year, experiencing life in far-flung areas that rarely feature in mainstream conversations.
Damodaran's compelling narrative reinforces the idea that, in India, a land of contrasts and contradictions, beauty and diversity, conflict comes in many forms.
Age Of Anger: A History Of The Present by Pankaj Mishra (Juggernaut)
Why do young men and women from the West join an extremist organisation like ISIS?
Why are we seeing the rise of aggressive right-wing politics in countries such as India, Turkey and USA, the expansion of Islamist terror, massacres in Western metropolises, wars in the Middle East?
And in what way is the politics of anger and violence connected?
Pankaj Mishra argues that the roots of our age of anger lie in the great economic and political revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Europe and the traumatic social and political changes they brought. Age Of Anger is a must-read to understand the world today.
A Feast Of Vultures: The Hidden Business Of Democracy In India by Josy Joseph (HarperCollins India)
'Every day, millions of people are hunting for ways to get their business done in modern India. If they search in the right places and offer the appropriate price, there is always a facilitator who can get the job done. This book is a sneak preview of those searches, the middlemen who do those jobs, and the many opportunities that the fast-growing economy offers.'
Josy Joseph draws upon two decades as an investigative journalist to expose a problem so pervasive that we do not have the words to speak of it.
A Feast Of Vultures is an unprecedented, multiple-level inquiry into modern India, and the picture it reveals is both explosive and frightening.
An Era Of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor (Aleph)
In this explosive book, bestselling author Shashi Tharoor reveals with acuity, impeccable research, and trademark wit, just how disastrous British rule was for India.
Besides examining the many ways in which the colonisers exploited India, ranging from the drain of national resources to Britain, the destruction of the Indian textile, steel-making and shipping industries, and the negative transformation of agriculture, he demolishes the arguments of Western and Indian apologists for Empire on the supposed benefits of British rule, including democracy and political freedom, the rule of law, and the railways.
Brilliantly narrated and passionately argued, An Era Of Darkness will serve to correct many misconceptions about one of the most contested periods of Indian history.