The Greatest Books of All Time Set in India

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
163 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 1922 German German
247 Kim Rudyard Kipling 1901 British English
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
328 Das Kapital Karl Marx 1867 German German
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
786 The Far Pavilions Mary Margaret Kaye 1978 British English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
819 Burmese Days George Orwell 1934 British English
1057 The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson 1889 British English
1083 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1087 Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore 1916 Indian Bengali
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
1247 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling 1894 British English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1573 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
1869 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1931 The Way Of The World Nicolas Bouvier 1963 French French
1968 Kama Sutra Vātsyāyana -400 Indian Sanskrit
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
2032 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2105 Someone Like You Roald Dahl 1953 British English
2185 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
2241 Flashman George MacDonald Fraser 1969 British English
2269 The Jewel In The Crown Paul Scott 1966 British English
2295 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2455 The Sign of Four Arthur Conan Doyle 1890 British English
2539 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2654 The Skeleton Amrita Pritam 1950 Indian Punjabi
2752 Satyagraha in South Africa Gandhi 1928 Indian Gujarati
2751 Decisive Moments in History Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
2773 Man-Eaters of Kumaon Jim Corbett 1944 British English
2856 Swami and Friends R. K. Narayan 1935 Indian English
2877 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2958 The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai 2006 Indian English
2973 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
2998 Staying On Paul Scott 1977 British English
3175 My Early Life Winston Churchill 1930 British English
3198 The Autobiography Of A Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 Indian English
3228 Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag 2015 Indian Kannada
3301 Baburnama Zahir Uddin Muhammad Babur 1530 Baburnama Chagatai turkish
3318 Shantaram Gregory David Roberts 2003 Australian English
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3469 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
3501 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
3510 Song Of Kali Dan Simmons 1985 American English
3638 The Tootinameh; Or, Tales of a Parrot India, Iran 1300 Indian Persian
3638 The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo 1942 Indian English
3638 Gods, Graves, And Scholars C. W. Ceram 1949 German German
3638 The Second Wife E. Marlitt 1899 German German
3892 Oriental Tales Marguerite Yourcenar 1938 French French
3928 The Vice-Consul Marguerite Duras 1966 French French
3933 Tales from the Kathasaritsagara Somadeva 1070 Indian Sanskrit
4369 The Moor's Last Sigh Salman Rushdie 1995 British English
4495 Soldiers Three Rudyard Kipling 1888 British English
4628 The Opium War Julia Lovell 2011 British English
4673 The Spiritual Teaching Of Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi 1972 Indian Tamil
4688 The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna Mahendranath Gupta 1902 Indian Bengali
4873 Heat and Dust Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1975 Indian English
4988 The Campaigns Of Alexander Arrian 1976 Greek Greek
5123 Creation Gore Vidal 1981 American English
5144 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5138 Toba Tek Singh Saadat Hasan Manto 1955 Pakistani Urdu
5187 The World's Religions Huston Smith 1958 American English
5237 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
5279 The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling Angus Wilson 1977 British English
5287 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
5309 Ice-Candy-Man Bapsi Sidhwa 1988 Pakistani English
5481 The Ministry For the Future Kim Stanley Robinson 2020 American English
5484 The Painter Of Signs R. K. Narayan 1976 Indian English
5516 Think On These Things Jiddu Krishnamurti 1964 Indian English
5595 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5680 The Covenant Of Water Abraham Verghese 2023 American English
5704 The Persian Boy Mary Renault 1972 British English
5939 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra 1982 American English
5969 Imperial China, 900–1800 F. W. Mote 1999 Chinese English
5986 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6161 Something Beautiful For God Malcolm Muggeridge 1971 British English
6382 An Essay On Universal History, The Manners, And Spirit Of Nations Voltaire 1756 French French
6382 A Voyage Round The World Georg Forster 1777 German German
6443 Tomb Of Sand Geetanjali Shree 2018 Indian Hindi
6444 Mystical Dimensions Of Islam Annemarie Schimmel 1975 Unknown English
6445 Eaarth Bill McKibben 2010 American English
6508 Memories of Rain Sunetra Gupta 1992 Indian English
6601 A Guide For The Perplexed E. F. Schumacher 1977 British English
6673 India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha 2007 Indian English
6860 My Guru And His Disciple Christopher Isherwood 1980 British English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6907 The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson 2002 American English
7086 Lajja Taslima Nasrin 1993 Bangladeshi Bengali
7115 Seven Years Peter Stamm 2009 Swiss German
7154 The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny Kiran Desai 2025 Unknown English
7216 Collected Stories Rudyard Kipling 1941 British English
7216 Complete Verse Rudyard Kipling 1940 British English
7216 Samskara U.R. Ananthamurthy 1965 Indian Kannada
7216 Pather Panchali Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay 1929 Indian Bengali
7634 The Golden Road William Dalrymple 2024 Unknown English
7644 The Hungry Tide Amitav Ghosh 2004 Indian English
7723 Unnatural Selection Mara Hvistendahl 2011 American English
7812 The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides 2011 American English
7950 My Story Kamala Das 1976 Indian English
7999 The Great Transformation Karen Armstrong 2006 British English