Recommendations based on Malgudi Daysby R.K. Narayan

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Swami and Friends

    by R.K. Narayan
    A group of friends living in a small Indian town experience adventures and growth.

    The story revolves around a ten year old school boy named Swaminathan and his friends. Throughout the novel he is called as Swami . All the events take place in Malgudi , A fictional town. Swami ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Immortals of Meluha

    by Amish Tripathi
    Epic adventure of an ancient warrior, seeking to protect a kingdom from evil forces.

    Meluha is a near perfect empire, created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram , one of the greatest Hindu kings that ever lived. However, the once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT

    by Chetan Bhagat
    Three friends at IIT navigate their way through college, learning life lessons along the way.

    The book is narrated by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the 3 friends, whose elation on ... (Wikipedia)

  4. 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

    by Chetan Bhagat
    A romantic comedy about two people from different cultural backgrounds who must overcome family opposition to be together.

    2 States: The Story of My Marriage is autobiographical with only names changed. The story is about a couple Krish and Ananya, who hail from two different states of India, Punjab and Tamil Nadu , ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Train to Pakistan

    by Khushwant Singh
    Peasant villagers in India during partition, forced to confront the brutality of sectarian violence.

    “In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a ... (Goodreads)

  6. Shantaram

    by Gregory David Roberts
    An Australian convict escapes to India and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

    In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to a 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions , and shops. In July 1980, he ... (Wikipedia)

  7. The Namesake

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    A young Indian-American's journey of reconciling two different cultures and his own identity.

    The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a young Bengali couple, leave Calcutta , India, and settle in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Ashoke is an engineering student at the ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Interpreter of Maladies

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    Collection of stories exploring the struggles of Indian-American immigrants in the US.

    A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four ... (Wikipedia)

  9. A Suitable Boy

    by Vikram Seth
    Epic story of a young woman's search for love and her family's struggle for acceptance in 1950s India.

    In 1951, 19-year-old Lata Mehra attends the wedding of her older sister, Savita, to Pran Kapoor, a university lecturer. Lata’s mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, says that it is time for Lata to be married as ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The God of Small Things

    by Arundhati Roy
    A moving story of two siblings growing up in India, exploring love, politics, and class.

    The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Hungry Tide

    by Amitav Ghosh
    A story of love, loss, and discovery set in the Sundarbans region of India.

    Off the easternmost corner of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans, where settlers live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. ... (Goodreads)

  12. Kane & Abel

    by Jeffrey Archer
    Two rival men, from different backgrounds, fight for success and power in a cutthroat world.

    The book tells the stories of two men born worlds apart. They have nothing in common except the same date of birth (18 April 1906 in the book, and 1901 in the miniseries based on it) and a zeal to ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Prophet

    by Kahlil Gibran
    Collection of poetic musings about life, spirituality, and love.

    Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone ... (Goodreads)

  14. Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition

    by Chetan Bhagat
    A love triangle set in the backdrop of corruption and ambition in modern-day India.

    This book follows the story of two friends separated by their ambitions and passions yet connected by their love for the same girl. While Gopal, who has experienced the harsh realities of life due to ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Complete Sherlock Holmes

    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    Collection of mysteries solved by the brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes.

    A study in scarlet – The sign of four -- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : A scandal in Bohemia ; The red-headed league ; A case of identity ; The Boscombe Valley mystery ; The five orange pips ; The ... (Goodreads)

  16. Midnight's Children

    by Salman Rushdie
    A magical tale of India's history told through the story of a boy born at the stroke of midnight.

    Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem ... (Goodreads)

  17. To Sir, With Love

    by E.R. Braithwaite
    A black teacher in post-WWII London struggles to gain respect from his unruly students. He teaches them valuable life lessons and gains their admiration.

    Ricky Braithwaite is an engineer from British Guiana who has worked in an oil refinery in Aruba . Coming to Britain just before the outbreak of World War II , he joins the RAF and is assigned to ... (Wikipedia)

  18. A Fine Balance

    by Rohinton Mistry
    A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.

    The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)

  19. My Name Is Red

    by Orhan Pamuk
    An art mystery set in 16th century Istanbul, delving into the power of art, religion and love.

    At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of ... (Goodreads)

  20. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

    by Richard Bach
    An exploration of self-expression and personal growth as a seagull learns to defy the boundaries of his flock.

    The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself and learns everything he can about ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Unaccustomed Earth

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    Collection of stories exploring the complexities of family, culture, and identity.

    From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take ... (Goodreads)

  22. The White Tiger

    by Aravind Adiga
    An exploration of the Indian class system, told from the perspective of a lower-caste man.

    The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China, who will soon be visiting India. Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in the village of ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Oliver Twist

    by Charles Dickens
    An orphan's journey of survival and resilience in the face of poverty and injustice.

    Oliver Twist is born into a life of poverty and misfortune, raised in a workhouse in the fictional town of Mudfog , located 70 miles (110 km) north of London . , , , He is orphaned by his father's ... (Wikipedia)

  24. The Hound of the Baskervilles

    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    A thrilling detective story of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they investigate a mysterious murder on the moor.

    Dr James Mortimer calls on Sherlock Holmes in London for advice after his friend Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead in the yew alley of his manor on Dartmoor in Devon . The death was attributed ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Jungle Book

    by Rudyard Kipling
    A young boy is raised in the jungle by animals, learning life lessons along the way.
  26. Kim

    by Rudyard Kipling
    An orphan boy navigates the complexities of colonial India, espionage, and his own identity in this classic adventure novel.

    Kim (Kimball O'Hara) , is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier (Kimball O'Hara sr., a former colour sergeant and later an employee of an Indian railway company) and a poor Irish mother (a former ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Fountainhead

    by Ayn Rand
    A story of a brilliant architect who refuses to conform to the establishment, challenging the status quo.

    In early 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from the architecture department of the Stanton Institute of Technology because he has not adhered to the school's preference for historical convention in ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Mother

    by Maxim Gorky
    A journey of self-discovery for a young man, as he learns the truth of his past.

    In his novel, Gorky portrays the life of a woman who works in a Russian factory doing hard manual labour and combating poverty and hunger, among other hardships. Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova is the real ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Love in the Time of Cholera

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.

    The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)

  30. A Twist in the Tale

    by Jeffrey Archer
    A collection of short stories with unexpected twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

    No one can weave a web of suspense, deliver a jolt of surprise, or teach a lesson in living like bestselling author Jeffrey Archer. From Africa to the Middle East, and from London to Beijing, Archer ... (Goodreads)