Seven books about India

What to read, until the "Ministry of the highest happiness" Arundati Roy has come out (which we are waiting for)

On the site Amazon.com on June 6, the second novel of the Indian writer Arundati Roy went on sale. Her first book of “The God of Logs”, telling about the fate of the separated twins against the backdrop of pro -communist unrest in the Indian state of Kerala, brought her creator the Buker prize for 1997, world glory and a place in the list of the hundred most influential people of the planet according to Time magazine. The current novel-the first after a 20-year break-promises to become a bestseller and one of the most important book events of the year. In Russian, the “Ministry of the highest happiness” will be released only in winter - in order to brighten up the expectation, the literary critic of “Medus” Galina Yuzefovich proposes to read seven other interesting books about India. (Alas, some important novels-for example, the “siege of Krishnapur” by James Farrel or the “suitable groom” by Vikram Set-have not yet been published in Russian.)

Redyard Kipling. Kim. SPb.: ABC, 2014. Translation by A. Kolotov

Redjard Kipling’s novel “Kim”, written more than a hundred years ago, still remains the gold standard of the “Indian novel”. The story of the Irish orphan boy Kimbola O` Hara, who was literally raised by the whole of India, is both a romance of growing up, and the story of wandering-physical and spiritual, and spy thriller, and the colonial saga, and the Mowgli Rima (instead of the human cub-the European boy, instead of the inhabitants of the jungle, are an innumerable multi-tied and different-sided Indians). Well, and also, as usual, a real encyclopedia of Indian life - they say that it has not lost relevance to this day.

Salman Rushdi. Children midnight. M.: AST, Corpus, 2014. Translation by A. Mirolyubova

The best novel about India, written in the twentieth century; the best novel that has ever received the Buker Prize (according to readers); The best novel in the genre of magical realism and in general one of the best novels in the history of world literature. India gained independence in midnight on August 15, 1947 - and the book of Salman Rushdi explores the fate of people born in this delightful moment. Dozens of plot lines are spinning in both directions - both in the past, by the beginning of the twentieth century, and into the future, creating a densely populated, diverse and, with all that, amazingly coherent and holistic world, with adventures, secrets and unrequited coincidences. If you like “midnight children” (and you will most likely like them), then other books by Rushdi about India await you ahead - “Farewell sigh of the Moor”, “Earth under her feet” and “Clown Shalimar”.

Arabind Adig. White tiger. M.: Fantom Press, 2010. Translation S. Sokolov

Another “Buker” novel is on our list. A simple village guy, nicknamed “White Tiger”, a beggar, but smart, goes to the city in search of a better share and immediately gets into a bad history. However, in a paradoxical way, what seems to be a disaster, as a result, turns out to the starting point of a dizzying and unpredictable trajectory, which will take the point from the bottom to the very top - with all stops and inevitable moral losses. The history of the ascent of the Bonda - to success, wealth and influence - becomes for the reader a sightseeing excursion on all countless floors, strata and segments of Indian society.

Vikas Swarup. Six suspects. M.: AST, 2009. Translation by Yu. Moiseenko

The handsome man, the rich man and the playboy Vika Ray was shot dead at his own party, and six people who had motives and the opportunity to kill are under suspicion. Among them are the Texas village, the full namesake and peer of the founder of the Google Corporation Larry Page (the loud name constantly becomes a source of misunderstandings, sometimes very dangerous), a short savage from the Andaman Islands, a street thief, a half -timing local politician and a couple of just as bright characters. Each of them must tell their story in order to prove their own innocence, but what begins as a detective investigation, turns very quickly into a study of the life of modern India. Vikas Swarup is primarily known as the author of the novel “Millionaire from slums” is also very good, but from the point of view of the specific Indian color of “six suspects”, perhaps more interesting and wider in coverage.

Leslie Forbes. The ice bomb. M.: AST, 2004. Translation S. Minkin

Unlike “six suspects”, who only pretend to be a detective, Roman Leslie Forbes is actually a detective nuar in the scenery of a vicious, dangerous and irresistible bombing. The heroine is a young journalist Rosalind, who grew up in India, but taken to England by a teenager, comes to the country of his childhood at the invitation of a consolidated sister-that one has some kind of something with her husband, and she needs the advice of a loved one. However, it is worth rosalind to step on the native land, as it turns out to be immediately involved in an investigation of a series of ominous crimes: someone in Bombay systematically kills hijr-Indian transvestites and transsexuals, and all traces lead to the black heart of Bollywood ... In essence, just a detective (albeit with some intellectual subtext), but read it in preparation for the ministry. The highest happiness ”will not be superfluous: the reviews say that one of the main characters of the new Roy novel - Hijra.

Jompa Lahiri. Lowland. M.: Center Polygraph, 2014

Roman Dzhumpa Lahiri is a classic Siblings love and rivalry for Indian culture: two brothers, quiet Subhash and charismatic is removed, they grow from the breed - they grow together, go to school together and eventually fall in love with the same girl. However, the dramatic difference between temperaments leads to the fact that they find themselves on different sides of symbolic barricades: it is removable to believe the “policy of action” and adjoins the naxalite terrorists, Subhash more worries stability, reliability, responsibility and prospects. Roman Lahiri reached the Buker short-list, but in Europe he was met, in general, quite cool. But in India, he became the great bestseller and one of the most discussed texts of the last decades - and already in this capacity deserves attention.

Vidiadhar Naypol. The territory of darkness. M.: Logos, 2008. Translation T. Azarkovich

Nobel laureate Vidiadhar Naypol, the most non-Indian (in order not to say anti-Indian) of all Indian writers, in 1964, after a long absence, he was making a desperate and (spoiler!) A doomed attempt to return home. As soon as Bombay entered the shore, he immediately becomes a criminal: a dry law was introduced in the city, and Naipol has a bottle of cheap whiskey in the suitcase, and this symbolic moment determines the whole further journey of the writer in his native country. The book, which became the result of his trip, is the frightening and exciting chronicle of a person who has lost its connection with the roots, looking at the surrounding reality through double optics - not quite European, but already definitely not Indian, and therefore seeing two India at once. The one that is turned inside, and the one that looks outside. Honestly, it is still unknown which of the two is worse and more magnificent.

Galina Yuzefovich