Written by Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy (2019), translated by Narasimha Kumar (2025). Tiger Lessons. Ravi, an engineer, now works as a sheep-herder in the Nallamala forests in Andhra Pradesh. After a drought, he’s forced to take his sheep deep inside the forest to graze, where there’s no one around. The Telugu title, Konda Polam, references this centuries-old pastoral tradition. The forest teaches him how to read its silences and its noises, and how to survive. There are jump-scares. But this is really a story of growing up.
White Elephant. Irish police officer Aiden Byrne’s faith in the Empire is shaken as he witnesses starving Indians abused, and even murdered by the Raj, while producing ice for lords and ladies. He teams up with a young Dalit activist, and tries to set the system straight. The Tamil writer’s book mixes fact and fiction, unfolding like a documentary. Allah Miyan’s Workshop. He has small joys like toffees to fight boredom. But life changes when his father is arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist. The story changes from a cosy novel about childhood to the harshness of growing up, and the circumstances that force a child to confront and escape reality at the same time.
Written by Jeyamohan (2013), translated by Priyamvada Ramkumar (2026). The year is 1878, and the Great Famine has claimed millions of lives in South India. Written by Mohsin Khan (2021), translated by Maaz Bin Bilal (2026). Khan’s debut Urdu novel follows Gibran, a 14-year-old boy, who flies kites and catches dragonflies.
Our Madhopur Home . The narrator of the novel, originally written in Hindi, is Laura, a perceptive, sensitive, cute… labrador. She tells the tale of a rural Bihari family across three generations — how feelings flare and fester, how gender and caste shape relationships. All of them are searching for the same thing: Home and belonging. And as the world changes, so do the desires of the family, for better, and sometimes, for worse. Gold Sand, Gold Water. Lolin, an adivasi Dalit, has grown up hearing stories of the Subarnarekha River, believed to have gold deposits. He dreams of discovering new islands and worlds, and of a life bigger than the one his caste dictates. Despite its hardships, riverine life is beautiful, filled with romantic folk tales and music. The English translation preserves the cadence of the original Bengali, and the reader can almost hear the gushing Subarnarekha. The Gods Are Leaving . Four brothers head to their ancestral Maharashtrian home on a single mission: To move their family’s gods and shrine to the city. There’s tension in the air, there are past conflicts none of the men want to address. It’s the end of an era, and they don’t want to admit they’ve grown apart. Mokashi writes slowly and unhurriedly in Marathi about this monumental journey. We’re missing naani ki ghar all of a sudden.
Written by Tripurari Sharan (2023), translated by Arunava Sinha (2025). Written by Nalini Bera (2018), translated by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (2026). Written by DB Mokashi (1961), translated by Shanta Gokhale (2026).
