Books from India

London, 1941. As German bombers descend on the city, two women find themselves caught in a different struggle: the fight for Indian independence from British rule. Ruby, a lonely air raid warden, becomes involved with the India Forum, a group campaigning for India’s freedom. She has her own reasons for joining the movement, but her growing attraction to Satyajit, a charismatic and potentially dangerous freedom fighter, forces her to question her loyalties. Meanwhile, Kitty, an Indian lawyer who has left her family in Bombay to build a life in Britain with the man she loves, risks everything to help Indian men challenge wartime conscription. As their lives intersect, political tensions, personal betrayals, and the threat of violence push both women towards decisions that could change their futures forever. Set against the Blitz and India’s independence movement, A Thread of Light uncovers a lesser-known chapter of British wartime history. Through its intertwined stories of love, sacrifice, and resistance, the novel explores the complicated relationship between colonial power and freedom, asking what people are willing to risk for their beliefs and the people they love.

A stolen tiger, a young craftsman, and the spoils of an empire collide in this imaginative historical adventure. In eighteenth-century Mysore, seventeen-year-old Abbas catches the attention of Tipu Sultan, who commissions him to help create an extraordinary mechanical tiger. But when British forces invade the palace, the magnificent automaton is carried away as war booty. Years later, Abbas travels to Europe, determined to recover his creation and reclaim a piece of the world stolen from him. Spanning India, France, and England, Loot combines romance, adventure, and ingenious storytelling to explore artistic ambition, the costs of empire, and the enduring question of who has the right to own another culture’s treasures.

In 1898, thirteen-year-old Pirbhai leaves his village in India, lured by the promise of work in East Africa. Instead, he is forced into labour on the British railway, where a desperate act committed in the name of survival becomes a secret that will haunt his descendants for generations. Years later, Pirbhai builds a family with Sonal in Uganda. Their children and grandchildren grow up amid the final years of British colonial rule, the country’s struggle for independence, and the political turmoil that follows. Among the next generation are three sisters, each with her own ambitions and understanding of what it means to belong. When Idi Amin orders Uganda’s Asian population to leave in 1972, the family is scattered across continents, carrying with them the memories, silences, and secrets of their past. Spanning more than a century and moving between India, East Africa, and Canada, A History of Burning traces how one act of survival reverberates through generations. Janika Oza weaves together colonial exploitation, political upheaval, family loyalty, and the search for home in an intimate multigenerational saga about the stories families preserve—and those they struggle to forget.