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Indian, Pakistani and South Asian authors
Indian fiction enjoyed huge popularity since the late 1990s. The exotic appeal of a traditional Indian lifestyle in tandem with the challenges faced by Indians in new societies like America has provided many a plot.
However Indian fiction is not all arranged marriages and mango orchards, authors such as Hari Kunzru and Monica Ali have moved away from the more lyrical writing of the past towards a sparer sometimes grittier realism.
Here is a selection of South Asian authors:
British based South Asian authors
There are some serious literary big guns in this list i.e. Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth. For a lighter but still intelligent read try Preethi Nair or Meera Syal.
- Monica Ali
- Hanif Kureishi
- Meera Syal
- Salman Rushdie
- Hari Kunzru
- Vikram Seth
- Indra Sinha
- Preethi Nair
- Gautam Malkani
- V.S. Naipaul
- Romesh Gunesekera
North American based South Asian authors
Canada and the US are home to many ethnic South Asians writing across a broad spectrum of themes. Rohinton Mistry’s novels often focus on poverty and corruption while Thirty Umrigar examines class conflict.
- Rohinton Mistry
- Kiran Desai
- Anita Desai
- Amitav Ghosh
- Bharati Mukherjee
- Vikram Chandra
- Anita Rau Badami
- Kavita Daswani
- Jhumpa Lahiri
- Thrity Umrigar
- Sujit Saraf
- Manil Suri
- Monica Pradhan
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Michael Ondaatje
- Samrat Upadhyay
