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I hate Valentine's Day, and I hate romance novels.
Well, at least that's what I used to think. Turns out I needed to get out of my pretentious, quote-unquote-intellectual enfant terrible persona. Life's not so bad when you give in to silly, goofy, sunlit social celebrations. Sometimes, it really isn't all that deep. Sometimes, you should simply pop open a bottle of wine (or whatever you prefer to drink), call your lover, pour a glass or ten, cozy up on the couch, and read a book together. Listen to me. Take the Friday off, make a long weekend out of it, and read one of these books this February 14th. You'll like it! It will be good! Nobody will question your intellectual street creds, and your partner or friends may even love you a little more for it. Speaking of partners, get them a gift from our ultimate Valentine's Day gifting guide, while you're at it. Why don't you? (wink-wink! 😉)
by Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi
Set in 19th-century India, Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi's sprawling magnus opus 'Saraswatichandra' is considered a masterpiece of Gujarati literature. The original novel was written and published in four parts over 15 years between 1887 and 1901, and follows the epic love story of the eponymous Saraswatichandra, a young, idealist lawyer, and Kumud, the young woman he has been arranged to marry. The original Gujarati Saraswatichandra is a poignant portrait of love and life in late 19th-century Gujarat, with keen commentary on the region's social, political, and religious landscape. But before you take on that behemoth of a great Indian novel even Mahatma Gandhi was a fan of, read the abridged, more accessible retelling by Sameer Acharya.
by Rabindranath Tagore
Set in early 20th-century India against the backdrop of the Independence Movement, 'Ghare-Baire' (translated as 'The Home And The World') is a major novel by the Bengali Nobel Laureate poet-novelist-playwright and bona fide polymath Rabindranath Tagore.
The story takes place in 1908, at the estate of a Bengali noble family, as the Swadeshi movement gains an unstoppable momentum. Set against this charged socio-political atmosphere, Ghare-Baire is both a love story and a novel of political awakening — revolving around the internal and external conflicts in the lives of Nikhil, his wife Bimala, and Nikhil's militant nationalist friend Sandip. Bimala's attempts to resolve the irreconcilable differences between the home and world reflect the conflict in India and mirror Tagore's conflicted feelings about Western Liberal culture and Western Colonialism, and the tragic outcome foreshadows the unrest that accompanied Partition in 1947. The novel was adapted into a critically acclaimed film of the same name by Satyajit Ray in 1984.
by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning debut novel 'The God Of Small Things' takes place across two disjointed timelines, shifting between 1960s and 1990s Kerala, and revolves around the fraternal twins Rahel and Estha, whose lives are torn apart by the Caste and family politics prevalent in Kerala during that period. A tragic commentary on love, life, the lingering effects of Casteism, and how small, seemingly insignificant occurrences can have far-reaching, life-altering consequences, the novel revolves around the doomed relationship between Ammu, the twins' mother, and Velutha, an 'untouchable' factory worker.
by Farhad Sorabjee
Spanning two continents and following an generational story of love, loss, and politics in turbulent societies, times, and allegiances, Farhad Sorabjee's debut novel 'God on Every Wind' explores the possibilities and limitations of revolutions and rebellions — both individual and political. One of the novel's protagonists, Philomena, is a born rebel, disillusioned with her middle-class comfort and the expectations of her parents; while the other, Nestor, is an impoverished African exile with the heart of a poet. When the two meet by chance on the streets of 1960s Bombay, their attraction changes their lives forever.
by Amitava Kumar
Amitava Kumar's 'The Lovers' is an immigrant story masquerading as a coming of age novel. It is a love story about a man in search of a love story. This man, the narrator-protagonist Kailash is a first-generation immigrant to America. In his account of his years at a university in New York, AK takes us through the bittersweet arc of youth and young love. There is discovery and disappointment. There are the brilliant women, Jennifer and Nina and Cai Yan. There is the political texture of campus life and the charismatic professor overseeing these young men and women, Ehsaan Ali — based on the real-life Pakistani political scientist, writer and academic Eqbal Ahmad. Manifest in AK’s first years and first loves is the wild enthusiasm of youth, its idealism, chaotic desires and confusions.
A decidedly modern novel that melds story and reportage, anecdote and annotation, picture and text, fragment and essay, The Lovers explores the feeling of culture shock that comes with immigration, the lack of clarity between men and women, and investigates love beyond and across dividing lines.
by Sharanya Manivannan
Sharanya Manivannan's historical debut novel 'The Queen of Jasmine Country' reimagines the little-known life of Andal — the 9th-century poet of Tamil epic poetic cycles Tiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumoli, which are still recited by devotees of Vishnu during the winter festival season of Margali.
Set in 9th-century Puduvai, in present-day Tamil Nadu, the novel follows the life of young Kodhai as she is taught to read and write by her adoptive father, Periyalvar, a garland-weaving Vaishnava poet-saint. As the young girl who would become Andal discovers the power of words, she also realizes that the undying desire for a great love that she has been nursing within her — one that does not suppress her desire for freedom — is likely to remain unfulfilled.
Rich with the echoes of classical Tamil poetry, Sharanya Manivannan's The Queen of Jasmine Country re-imagines the life of the devotional poet-saint Andal, whose sublime and erotic verses remain beloved and controversial to this day.
by Rheea Mukherjee
Mira, the protagonist of Rheea Mukherjee's debut novel 'The Body Myth', is a teacher living in the heart of the fictitious town Suryam, the only place in the world the fickle Rasagura fruit grows. Mira lives alone with only the French existentialists as companions, until the day she witnesses a beautiful woman having a seizure in the park. Mira runs to help her but is cautious because she could have sworn the woman looked around to see if anyone was watching right before the seizure began.
As Mira is drawn deeper into the lives of this mysterious woman named Sara, who suffers a myriad of unexplained illnesses, and her kind, intensely supportive husband Rahil, she is entangled in intimate, volatile and fragile friendships with each of them that quickly become something more. A moving exploration of love, loss, and the duality of reality and desire, The Body Myth is an intense contemporary love story.
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