HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2020

O’Farrell and Indurkar, Basumatari and Nemirovsky, autopathography and corporate autobiography, novels and studies on the pandemic... This is an eclectic collective reading list.

HT reviewers generally avoid being swayed by literary fashion. Their tastes are wide-ranging and their year-end recommendations are spot-on. Click on the link under each picture to learn about that reviewer’s favourite read of the year.

Reading as worship: A trumpet player in Delhi reads a prayer book during a work break. (Daliel Berehulak/Getty Images)

NAWAID ANJUM

Portrayals of the fearful uncertainty of life: a reimagining of the death of William Shakespeare’s son, and a book that delves deep into the family dynamic

CHINTAN GIRISH MODI

Chintan Girish Modi

No catering to clichés: An author’s honest exploration of her struggles with mental health

SIMAR BHASIN

Simar Bhasin

Breaking free of a shackled existence: A selection of books that articulate feminist struggles

SAUDAMINI JAIN

Fiction as reportage in a novel written and set during the Nazi occupation of France

SUJOY GUPTA

Gems of management literature: a corporate autobiography and a compelling tale from contemporary e-commerce history

MAAZ BIN BILAL

The shutting down of dissent: A classic that comments on reactions to the epidemic, novels that reveal the paranoia against Muslim minorities, and a volume that interrogates the idea of Hindustan

SONALI MUJUMDAR

A gratifying tale of kindred spirits bound by their common love for literature provides balm to the soul in a difficult year

LAMAT R HASAN

A study of the pandemic states that it is not unprecedented and will be as easily forgotten as the ones that went before

PERCY BHARUCHA

Two novels, one of them a graphic mystery, deal with the true nature of reality

VIVEK MENEZES

A well-timed volume arrives in the heat of the majoritarian battle to usurp the idea of India

KUNAL RAY

A novel filled with stellar insights into the privacy of life and living