The Indian Fiction Top 25

(Courtesy of Kitabkhana)

Jerry Pinto, poet, journalist Who Actually Reads, and author, recently put together a list of the 25 Best Books in Indian fiction (English language, no translations):

1. Vikram Chandra: Love and Longing in Bombay
2. Aubrey Menen: The Fig Tree
3. Rohinton Mistry: Tales from Firozhsha Baug
4. Jhumpa Lahiri: The Interpreter of Maladies
5. Hari Kunzru: The Impressionist
6. G V Desani: All About H Hatterr
7. Vikram Seth: The Golden Gate
8. Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
9. R K Narayan: Swami and Friends
10. Mulk Raj Anand: Coolie
11. Kamala Markandaya: Nectar in a Sieve
12. Anita Desai: Baumgartner’s Bombay
13. Amitav Ghosh: The Shadow Lines
14. I Allan Sealy: The Trotternama
15. Shashi Tharoor: The Great Indian Novel
16. Githa Hariharan: When Dreams Travel
17. Kiran Nagarkar: Raavan & Eddie
18. Shashi Deshpande: That Long Silence
19. Arundhathi Roy: The God of Small Things
20. Raja Rao: Kanthapura
21. Khushwant Singh: Delhi
22. Nisha Da Cunha: Old Cypress
23. Ruskin Bond: The Room on the Roof
24. Gita Mehta: The River Sutra
25. Indi Rana: The Devil in the Dustbin

Hmmmm. I've read four of the 25 (4,5,8 and 19). It would have been five but for the fact that Khushwant Singh's Delhi (his Train to Pakistan would have been a better choice) was so unpalatable that I left it unfinished.

I'm surprised Vikram Seth gets a mention with The Golden Gate rather than his magnum opus, the veritable doorstep, A Suitable Boy. But alas, perhaps I only say that so I could at least claim to have read exactly 20% of the featured titles.

Time to stoke up some controversy: any suggestions for a Pakistani top 25? (Or should we start with 10 and see how far we get?)