Recommendations based on Swami and Friendsby R.K. Narayan

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

  1. Malgudi Days

    by R.K. Narayan
    A captivating collection of stories set in a fictional South Indian town, exploring the lives of its eccentric inhabitants.

    Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennial Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look ... (Goodreads)

  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. Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

    by Devdutt Pattanaik
    A beautifully illustrated retelling of the epic Indian mythological tale, the Mahabharata, exploring its many complex characters and themes.

    High above the sky stands Swarga, paradise, abode of the gods. Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God. The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean ... (Goodreads)

  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. 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)

  6. 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)

  7. 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)

  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. 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)

  10. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    A detective's collection of cases, full of intrigue and suspense.

    The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the Strand magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and ... (Goodreads)

  11. 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)

  12. The Oath of the Vayuputras

    by Amish Tripathi
    An epic adventure of revenge, redemption and self-discovery.

    ONLY A GOD CAN STOP IT. Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose ... (Goodreads)

  13. Love Story

    by Erich Segal
    A tale of love, loss and hope, as two young lovers navigate life's challenges.

    Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law . . . Jenny Cavilleri, a sharp-tongued, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe ... (Goodreads)

  14. 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)

  15. The Moor's Last Sigh

    by Salman Rushdie
    The story of a family's exile and their struggle to keep their culture alive.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, Moraes 'Moor' Zogoiby is a 'high-born crossbreed', the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinise spice merchants and crime lords. He is also a ... (Goodreads)

  16. 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)

  17. And the Mountains Echoed

    by Khaled Hosseini
    Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.

    The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)

  18. 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)

  19. His Last Bow

    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    Sherlock Holmes's last case involving a German spy and a peace treaty.

    'His Last Bow', the title story of this collection, tells how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the Government fight the German threat at the approach of the First World War. The ... (Goodreads)

  20. 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)

  21. 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)

  22. The Merchant of Venice

    by William Shakespeare
    A tale of justice, mercy, and revenge, a struggle between religious and secular law.

    Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of Belmont. Having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Chanakya's Chant

    by Ashwin Sanghi
    A political thriller that weaves together the stories of Chanakya, an ancient Indian strategist, and a modern-day politician.

    The year is 340 B.C . A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father by the Emperor of Magadh, Dhana Nanda. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with ... (Wikipedia)

  24. 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)

  25. Three Men in a Boat

    by Jerome K. Jerome
    Three friends and a dog embark on a whimsical boat journey down the Thames, encountering unexpected adventures and mishaps.

    A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat includes an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin ... (Goodreads)

  26. 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)

  27. The Jungle Book

    by Rudyard Kipling
    A young boy is raised in the jungle by animals, learning life lessons along the way.
  28. 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)

  29. A Scandal in Bohemia

    by Ronald Holt
    Sherlock Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia to retrieve a compromising photograph from an actress, but she outwits him.

    Dr. Watson recounts an adventure that started on 20 March 1888. While Watson is paying Holmes a visit, Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia , enters his office. ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Eleventh Commandment

    by Jeffrey Archer
    A political thriller centered around a CIA agent's mission to uncover a top-secret conspiracy.

    The chief of the CIA , Helen Dexter, decides, on her own, to order the murder of political figures of other nations on the basis of their views on the United States. The book starts with the murder ... (Wikipedia)