Written in response to the question: What are your 10/10 novels?
A nice question indeed. One, that will help the answerers keep their biases aside, and focus on something that makes the books, they are about to add in the answer, perfect, when it comes down to plot, characters and language structure. Here are a few books that makes to my 10/10 list:
- ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry: A scrupulous narrative with a keen insight into human emotions; language structure bearing resemblance to the likes of Dickens; Indianness that you find in the books by R.K. Narayan or Khushwant Singh; an impeccable understanding of the place where it is set in; along with some munificent and magnificent quotes make this book a must read for every one.
- ‘The Narrow Road Down The Deep North’ by Richard Flanagan: This will make you think about many things you consider morally corrupt, and will make you think about the things you do not. It will shatter your heart when the narrative reaches the POW camps. 12 years into the writing, this book will make you fall in love with words and the tone in which this has been written. Besides, it has one of the most beautiful and meaningful opening lines. Oh, it is definitely worth multiple reads.
- ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Oh, you must read this to understand that books as small as this can have a profound effect on the readers, that you don’t always have to sermonise to teach, and that life is beautiful and meaningful just the way it is.
- ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde: Read this to get challenged, to get your believes shattered, to meet the most influential (brain washing) characters of all time, to meet one of the most clever and witty author of all the times, and to meet my favorite humorist and satirist.
- ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus: Absurdism at its best.
- ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens: No one makes the sun set and the moon take charge better than Dickens.
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: Oh, this books is devastatingly beautiful.Devastating. Beautifully so.
- ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr: A book that evokes anticipation and expectation in very appropriate proportion. One of the most enthralling books I have ever come across, and one of those even fewer books that succeed in engrossing the reader from the very beginning (what a page tuner!). A highly recommended book.
- ‘India After Gandhi’ by Ramachandra Guha:
Quote: So long as the Constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and — lest I forget — so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive”
― Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy
- ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak: When death tells you a story, you really have to listen. To start with, I have never really loved anyone who throws spoiler but then again when its death who throws spoilers at you really don’t have any choice, do you?
Markus Zusak you beauty. Narration by death itself is what a brilliant concept. One moment the author gives you an insight into someones life and the very next moment you find a revelation of their death….
A very small story indeed. Breathtakingly beautiful, mesmerising and so very unputdownable.
- ‘The Nightingale’ by Kristin Hannah: Men tell stories, Women get on with it. Powerful, devastating, and magnificent…
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini:
- ‘War And Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy:
- ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth: Invigorating, Colossal, Magnificent, and Soothing!. One of the most nonchalant book. Both the writing and the research beneath the presented facts explain the fame and fans that this book has won for Mr. Seth. Yes, and as ‘THE OBSERVER’ wrote in a praise that “you are bound to feel sad when the pages on the right side of the tome start thinning out”- well one can easily relate to it.
- ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini:
- Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry:
Image Source:
a) Google
b) Goodreads
Happy Reading!
A Fine Balance 