Book picks similar to
The Secret Wish List by Preeti Shenoy


indian-authors
fiction
preeti-shenoy
romance

Train to Pakistan


Khushwant Singh - 1956
    By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.”It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train” arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.Introduction by Arthur Lall

It's first love...Just like the last one!


Sachin Garg - 2011
    Boy eyes the girl.She is fair, has dark eyes & beautiful hair; the whole college loves her. He is tall, dark and has the cutest dimples.They are a perfect couple. They fall in love.Endless phone calls, pointless blushes, constant sweet nothings.Everybody is jealous of them but they are too busy being in love. .. Right?Bullshit!Real love is a lot more complex.Sachin Garg, opens his heart, and shares the story of the twentieth year of his life.It s First Love.. is the story of five people and how they end up transforming completely over a period of a year.Sachin. Kanika, Arshi. Radhika. Zeeshan.Sachin Garg, a guy freakishly similar to you or a guy next to you. He is a perfect blend of tall, dark and handsome. He is tall, and he is handsome when it is dark.Kanika Merchant, a fireball of energy on the outside, but a mystery on the inside. On the face of it, she wakes up every morning and thinks what she is going to wear today. But a thousand secrets lay hidden behind that smile.Arshi, more like a bad mouthing MTV Roadies contestant, than a regular college student. What will make her transform completely as a person, in a single second?Radhika Merchant, a successful TV journalist, an achiever par excellence and yet so hollow. How will she bring her own downfall?Zeeshan, a useless man, lives in a dusty broken house in a dingy lane. In reality, he is a doctor who has seen tougher times than most people do. What is his story?Lose your heart to their story and in the process, get to know everything about your love life you were never able to figure out.

The Smitten Husband (Marriages Made in India)


Sundari Venkatraman - 2019
    At twenty-nine, he is already a billionaire jewellery designer. When his parents go looking for a suitable bride for him, Ram goes along with their plan-he has no reason to refuse.A beauty with brains, Sapna Purohit is a bridal mehndi designer, and her work is all the rage in Pushkar. She doesn't come from money, but she is feisty and assertive. A romantic at heart, Sapna dreams of a prince charming who will one day breeze into her life and sweep her off her feet.When renowned astrologer Vidyasagar proposes an alliance between the two, he sets the wheels of fate in motion. One look into Sapna's stormy-grey eyes, and Ram is lost. Only, Sapna does not see her prince charming in him. But when the Maheshwaris offer to bear all the wedding expenses, Sapna is left with no choice except to agree to the match.But what about her dreams? What about love? Steeling herself, Sapna sets a condition to the marriage. Will the smitten husband agree?

Swami and Friends


R.K. Narayan - 1935
    Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."—Graham GreeneOffering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. The Dark Room is a searching look at a difficult marriage and a woman who eventually rebels against the demands of being a good and obedient wife. In Mr. Sampath, a newspaper man tries to keep his paper afloat in the face of social and economic changes sweeping India. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semiautobiographical Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief."The experience of reading one of his novels is . . . comparable to one's first reaction to the great Russian novels: the fresh realization of the common humanity of all peoples, underlain by a simultaneous sense of strangeness—like one's own reflection seen in a green twilight."—Margaret Parton, New York Herald Tribune"The novels of R.K. Narayan are the best I have read in any language for a long time. . . . His work gives the conviction that it is possible to capture in English, a language not born of India, the distinctive characteristics of Indian family life."—Amit Roy, Daily Telegraph

Serious Men


Manu Joseph - 2010
    Ayyan Mani, one of the thousands of dalit (untouchable caste) men trapped in Mumbai’s slums, works in the Institute of Theory and Research as the lowly assistant to the director, a brilliant self-assured astronomer. Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves two plots, one involving his knowledge of an illicit romance between his married boss and the institute’s first female researcher, and another concerning his young son and his soap-opera-addicted wife. Ayyan quickly finds his deceptions growing intertwined, even as the Brahmin scientists wage war over the question of aliens in outer space. In his debut novel, Manu Joseph expertly picks apart the dynamics of this complex world, offering humorous takes on proselytizing nuns and chronicling the vanquished director serving as guru to his former colleagues. This is at once a moving portrait of love and its strange workings and a hilarious portrayal of men’s runaway egos and ambitions. .

Safe Harbour


Danielle Steel - 2003
    At eleven, Pip Mackenzie's young life has already been touched by tragedy; nine months before, a terrible accident plunged her mother Ophelie into inconsolable grief. But on this chilly July afternoon, Pip meets artist Matt Bowles, who offers to teach the girl to draw--and can't help but notice her beautiful, lonely mother.Matt Bowles senses something magical about Pip, who reminds him of his own daughter at that age, before a bitter divorce tore his family apart and swept his children halfway across the world. At first, Ophelie is thrown off-balance by her daughter's new companion--until she realizes how much joy he is bringing into their lives. As Matt confronts unfinished business from his past, and Ophelie is struck by a stunning betrayal, out of the darkness that has shadowed them both comes an unexpected gift of hope.

Chanakya's Chant


Ashwin Sanghi - 2010
    A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire.History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied—and a little bored—by his success as a kingmaker, through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write his Arthashastra, the ‘science of wealth’. But history, which exults in repeating itself, revives Chanakya two and a half millennia later, in the avatar of Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in smalltown India who becomes puppeteer to a host of ambitious individuals—including a certain slumchild who grows up into a beautiful and powerful woman.Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient Bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this landscape is Gangasagar’s feasting ground. Can this wily pandit—who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance—bring about another miracle of a united India? Will Chanakya’s chant work again? Ashwin Sanghi, the bestselling author of The Rozabal Line, brings you yet another historical spinechiller.

Love Story


Erich Segal - 1970
    . . Jenny Cavilleri, a sharp-tongued, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe . . .Opposites in nearly every way, Oliver and Jenny are kindred spirits from vastly different worlds. Falling deeply and powerfully, their attraction to one another defies everything they have ever believed—as they share a passion far greater than anything they dreamed possible . . . and explore the wonder of a love that must end too soon.One of the most adored novels of our time, this is the book that defined a generation—a story of uncompromising devotion, of life as it really is . . . and love that changes everything.

Ladies Coupé


Anita Nair - 2001
    In the intimate atmosphere of the all-women sleeping car - the 'Ladies Coupe' - Akhila asks the five women the question that has been haunting her all her adult life: can a woman stay single and be happy, or does she need a man to feel complete?This wonderfully atmospheric, deliciously warm novel takes the reader into the heart of women's lives in contemporary India, revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships with hunsbands, mothers, friends, employers and children are the same world over.

The Lover's Dictionary


David Levithan - 2011
    And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it's even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover's face.How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

P.S. I Love You


Cecelia Ahern - 2004
    Holly couldn't live without her husband Gerry, until the day she had to. They were the kind of young couple who could finish each other's sentences. When Gerry succumbs to a terminal illness and dies, 30-year-old Holly is set adrift, unable to pick up the pieces. But with the help of a series of letters her husband left her before he died and a little nudging from an eccentric assortment of family and friends, she learns to laugh, overcome her fears, and discover a world she never knew existed. The kind of enchanting novel with cross-generational appeal that comes along once in a great while, PS, I Love You is a captivating love letter to the world!

The (In)Eligible Bachelors


Ruchita Misra - 2011
    She is also geeky and single at 24.The biggest sore spot in Kasturi's life is her dominating, arranged marriage obsessed mother now hell bent on getting her daughter married off at the earliest.Does Kasturi find love in one of the rather weird but IIT/IIM boys that Mum manages to shortlist? Or perhaps she can follow her wildly beating heart that seems to be set on the Greek God incarnate that her boss Rajeev Sir is? With office buddies Ananya and Varun by her side, the hilariously fumbling Kasturi embarks upon a rip roaring journey to find Mr. RightThe (In)Eligible Bachelors which chronicles Kasturi's diary through this time, is a riotous adventure of adrenaline, laughter and guffawsIt is also an invaluable lesson in love, family and friendship

The Room on the Roof


Ruskin Bond - 1956
    Written when the author was seventeen, it brilliantly describes the hopes and passions that capture young minds and hearts. A moving tale of love and friendship, it has endured as Bond’s most beloved novel.

The Worst Daughter Ever


Aarti V. Raman - 2019
    Lasya ‘LJ’ Raghavan is a spectacularly single, unsuccessful playwright with an estranged family, crippling debt, and a dead-end job. When the family matriarch Chandralekha Chakrapani dies, LJ has to face the family that considers her an epic failure… especially her father, who has taken a vow of silence against her; her cousin sister, Ahalya, who blames LJ for destroying her marriage; and bridezilla Kiki whose wedding has been cancelled. Adding to the family drama is Banjeet ‘Ben’ Dewar, her grandmother's lawyer who keeps showing up whenever LJ falls apart. Ben is everything LJ is looking for in a man, except Ahalya is interested in Ben too! Can LJ be selfish once more when the last time nearly destroyed her family? More importantly, can LJ's family forgive her when she is the ‘worst daughter ever’? Written in the style of bestselling Indian rom-coms, The Worst Daughter Ever explores love, loss, friendship, family, redemption and forgiveness in a funny, emotional, coming-of-age tale.

Sundays at Tiffany's


James Patterson - 2008
    Her mother, the powerful head of a Broadway theater company, has no time for her. She does have one friend-a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael-but only she can see him. Years later, Jane is in her thirties and just as alone as ever. Then she meets Michael again-as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited.SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S is a love story with an irresistible twist, a novel about the child inside all of us-and the boundary-crossing power of love.