August Indian fiction: From Delhi to Bahrain, six new novels chronicle the vast lives of Indians

All information sourced from publishers.

The Apparition, MG Vassanji

It’s the 13th century, and Delhi is slowly slipping into decline under the ageing Sultan Alauddin Khilji. Fears of famine, foreign invasion and court intrigue plague the city. In the midst of all this ferment, a strange, enigmatic object appears in the sky. No one knows what it is, but the persistence of the apparition and its passivity seem to portend something sinister.

The Sultan orders Amir Hassan al-Shirazi – Sufi, poet, intellectual and, some would say, the Sultan’s favourite – to investigate this cosmic phenomenon. Hassan’s search takes him to every quarter of Delhi, and everywhere, paranoia, confusion and fear reign supreme. Just when it seems that the city will collapse under the weight of its own misgivings, a distant grey cloud approaches. As its people watch, awestruck, strange creatures – half-man, half-bird – descend on the city. It is a takeover by the Avians and the death of the old order in Delhi.

Amir Hassan observes Delhi adapt to this new reality. Will alien rule finally bring peace to the beleaguered city, he wonders. And will that be at the cost of its identity?

White Elephant, Jeyamohan, translated from the Tamil by Priyamvada Ramkumar

It is 1878, and Aiden Byrne, an...

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