HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2023
ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR
A retired man reminisces about his school days and the repercussions of his conduct in this Booker Prize winning novel from over a decade ago.
CHINTAN GIRISH MODI
A novel about a Jain family in the UK that shows how sport can help an individual process grief
FARZANA VERSEY
On this year’s celebrated novel Yellowface by RF Kuang that mimics woke social media outrage against the backdrop of friendship and jealousy in the publishing world
LAMAT R HASAN
The anecdotes about chieftains and their chelas, the ode to Farrukhabad, and the art of expressing time through chronograms make Tarikh-i-Farrukhabad a compelling read
MAJID MAQBOOL
The story of a girl sent away to live with foster parents in rural Ireland and the work of a poet from Gaza keep the reader hooked
MIHIR CHITRE
A book that travels across continents to explain the various aspects and quirks of language
PRAHLAD SRIHARI
A search for a lost horror film leads the protagonists into a world of Nazi occultism in a novel that explores the legacy of colonialism in Mexico
SAIKAT MAJUMDAR
A collection of short stories that marks women as pervasive and self-destructive forces of nature
SAUDAMINI JAIN
The Bee Stingis about family and friendship and climate change, and the heaviness of existing in the world now
SHIREEN QUADRI
A taut, and well-wrought work of psychological fiction told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator
SIMAR BHASIN
Three novels that delve into the multiple histories of immigration
SUHIT BOMBAYWALA
A gut-wrenchingly tragic story about caste-crossed lovers Saroja and Kumaresan who pay the price of forbidden love
SYED SAAD AHMED
10 essays that profile “the ocean’s strangest creatures” and weaves them with personal stories
TEJA LELE
A book that strikes the right chord at a time when women are angrier than ever before about everything from sexual violence to domestic inequality
IN MEMORIAM
Every review he wrote displayed the depth of his knowledge and the breadth of his reading. His contributions enriched the Books page immensely.
ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR
A retired man reminisces about his school days and the repercussions of his conduct in this Booker Prize winning novel from over a decade ago.
CHINTAN GIRISH MODI
A novel about a Jain family in the UK that shows how sport can help an individual process grief
FARZANA VERSEY
On this year’s celebrated novel Yellowface by RF Kuang that mimics woke social media outrage against the backdrop of friendship and jealousy in the publishing world
LAMAT R HASAN
The anecdotes about chieftains and their chelas, the ode to Farrukhabad, and the art of expressing time through chronograms make Tarikh-i-Farrukhabad a compelling read
MAJID MAQBOOL
The story of a girl sent away to live with foster parents in rural Ireland and the work of a poet from Gaza keep the reader hooked
MIHIR CHITRE
A book that travels across continents to explain the various aspects and quirks of language
PRAHLAD SRIHARI
A search for a lost horror film leads the protagonists into a world of Nazi occultism in a novel that explores the legacy of colonialism in Mexico
SAIKAT MAJUMDAR
A collection of short stories that marks women as pervasive and self-destructive forces of nature
SAUDAMINI JAIN
The Bee Stingis about family and friendship and climate change, and the heaviness of existing in the world now
SHIREEN QUADRI
A taut, and well-wrought work of psychological fiction told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator
SIMAR BHASIN
Three novels that delve into the multiple histories of immigration
SUHIT BOMBAYWALA
A gut-wrenchingly tragic story about caste-crossed lovers Saroja and Kumaresan who pay the price of forbidden love
SYED SAAD AHMED
10 essays that profile “the ocean’s strangest creatures” and weaves them with personal stories
TEJA LELE
A book that strikes the right chord at a time when women are angrier than ever before about everything from sexual violence to domestic inequality
IN MEMORIAM
Every review he wrote displayed the depth of his knowledge and the breadth of his reading. His contributions enriched the Books page immensely.